Judge orders preservation of medical records from shuttered Tennessee clinics

PainMD, a pain management company, received a court order Sept. 17 to preserve the medical records of its patients from several shuttered Tennessee clinics for at least one year, the Tennessean reports.

The Nashville-based company locked up the records in storage units across Tennessee, Virginia and South Carolina after declaring bankruptcy and ceasing operations in May. PainMD revealed in court documents that it planned to abandon the records "because it couldn't afford to pay storage fees and none of its remaining employees could access the storage units," according to the report.

In August, federal prosecutors asked a judge to intervene after discovering that some of the storage facilities were preparing to burn or shred the abandoned medical records over lack of payment. A judge ruled Sept. 17 that the PainMD bankruptcy trustee must pay the storage companies and an EHR company to preserve both digital and paper medical records for the next year.

Despite the granted halt on the medical records destruction, it is not clear whether patients can access them yet. The clinics' attorneys have not responded to numerous requests from the Tennessean for an explanation of how former patients can access their records, according to the report.

Attorneys are scheduled to meet in summer 2020 to discuss whether the records will still require preservation.

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