Tennessee Healthcare Compliance.
Tennessee imposes a 45-day breach notice clock generally, but explicitly defers to HIPAA's 60-day window for covered entities — making it one of the cleaner state-federal interlocks. Practices in Tennessee that are HIPAA-covered work to the federal baseline; non-HIPAA-covered entities holding TN-resident medical information work to the 45-day clock.
At a glance
60days
Tenn. Code § 47-18-2107 requires notice within 45 days from discovery for general PII breaches, but HIPAA-covered entities and business associates are explicitly given the HIPAA 60-day clock (45 CFR 164.404). Healthcare practices in Tennessee therefore work to the 60-day window; non-HIPAA-covered entities holding TN-resident PII work to the shorter 45-day clock.
- Tennessee Identity Theft Deterrence Act / Breach NotificationTenn. Code § 47-18-2107
45-day individual notice (60 days for HIPAA-covered entities) from discovery; covers personal information including health insurance and medical information.
- HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules45 CFR Parts 160 & 164
The federal baseline that all U.S. covered entities and business associates meet. HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces.
How Tennessee goes further than HIPAA.
The breach window in Tennessee aligns with HIPAA’s 60-day individual-notice deadline. State-law overlays here are mostly about who else gets notified, what the personal- information definition covers, and whether any named statute (CMIA, BIPA, MHMDA, HB 300, 201 CMR 17.00, SHIELD) adds substantive duties. Notice flows through Tennessee Attorney General in addition to HHS/OCR federally.
Related compliance guides
Turn this overlay into a defensible SRA.
Tennessee's overlay layers on top of HIPAA's federal floor. The free SRA readiness check walks a small practice through discovery, threat model, controls, and gap analysis, then assembles the review-ready binder — policies, training logs, BAAs, and a breach playbook tuned to the 60-day clock and the Tennessee Attorney General notification path.
D3rx is a healthcare-billing and compliance research aid maintained by D3rx Inc. Articles are drafted by an LLM (Anthropic Claude) against primary HHS, OCR, CMS, eCFR, NIST, and state-regulator publications, and reviewed for restraint and source fidelity by the D3rx team.
Reviewer status: a named credentialed reviewer (CHC, CHPC, or healthcare attorney) is being engaged. Until that engagement is finalized, this page does not claim credentialed review.
Related across the archive
- ComplianceHIPAA Breach Notification: The 60-Day Window Step-by-StepFrom discovery you have 60 calendar days to notify individuals, HHS, and possibly media. Here is the procedure that actually protects the practice.
- RegulationCalifornia Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA, Cal. Civ. Code 56-56.37)California state law providing broader patient confidentiality protections than HIPAA for medical information held by providers, contractors, and certain employers.
- RegulationColorado Privacy Act (CPA, C.R.S. § 6-1-1301 et seq.)Colorado comprehensive consumer privacy law with consumer rights, controller/processor obligations, universal opt-out mechanism requirement, and an AG enforcement framework with HIPAA carve-outs.
- RegulationConnecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA, Public Act 22-15)Connecticut comprehensive consumer data privacy law with consumer rights, controller/processor obligations, and an AG enforcement framework — with substantial healthcare carve-outs.
- RegulationFlorida Information Protection Act (FIPA, Fla. Stat. § 501.171)Florida data breach notification and information security law requiring covered entities to maintain reasonable security and to notify affected individuals and the AG of breaches within 30 days.
- RegulationIllinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA, 740 ILCS 14)Illinois state law regulating the collection, retention, use, and destruction of biometric identifiers, with a private right of action and statutory damages per violation.
- RegulationMassachusetts 201 CMR 17.00 (Standards for the Protection of Personal Information)Massachusetts data security regulation requiring a written information security program (WISP) protecting personal information of MA residents, with specific technical requirements.
- RegulationNew York SHIELD Act (Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act, N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 899-bb)New York data breach and information security law requiring reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards for private information of NY residents, with expanded breach notification.
Last reviewed May 23, 2026.
This page is a research aid for compliance teams. It does not certify compliance with any state or federal law, provide legal advice, replace counsel, or guarantee an audit outcome. State statutes are amended frequently — verify citations and links against the cited primary sources before acting. The practice remains responsible for adopting and maintaining its compliance program.