Burr & Forman recently claimed a victory for its client CIOX Health, LLC in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Faber, et al. vs. CIOX Health, LLC, Case. No. 18-5896 (6th Cir. December 5, 2019). Burr serves as national counsel to CIOX, one of the nation’s largest processors of requests for medical records.

Faber was a putative class action in which the Plaintiffs alleged that CIOX’s charges for responding to medical records requests violated both HIPAA and the Tennessee Medical Records Act (TMRA). Plaintiffs contended, among other things, that the TMRA applied to CIOX and that although HIPAA contained no private cause of action, alleged HIPAA violations could support various common law claims, including claims of negligence and negligence per se.  The district court dismissed plaintiffs’ TMRA claim on a motion to dismiss, then granted summary judgment to CIOX on all remaining claims.

In a decision entered on December 5, 2019, the Sixth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the claims, stating succinctly: “When Congress chose not to create a private cause of action in HIPAA, it wasn’t our job to graft one onto Tennessee law - and when the Tennessee legislature chose to not make CIOX liable under the TMRA, it wasn’t up to us to make it liable anyway.  The district court understood this so we affirm its judgment.”

The team from Burr, led by Nashville partners Garry Grooms and Ken Bryant as well as Atlanta associate Tala Amirfazli, teamed up with the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis to claim the win.

For more than a century, Burr & Forman LLP’s experienced legal team has served clients at the intersection of business and government with local, national, and international interests in numerous industry and practice areas, ranging from commercial litigation and class actions to corporate transactions, including bankruptcy and restructurings. A Southeast regional firm with 360 attorneys and 19 offices in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, Burr & Forman attorneys draw from a diverse range of resources to help clients achieve their goals and address their complex legal needs. The firm operates as Burr Forman McNair in North Carolina and South Carolina. For more information, visit the firm’s website at www.burr.com.