TCA § 63-1-315 — Inspection of office suspected of operating as unlicensed pain management clinic — Prohibited admission of new patients

Notwithstanding this title or title 68, for the purposes of determining if a health care provider's office is operating as a pain management clinic, the department of health is authorized to conduct an unannounced inspection process, which may include, but not be limited to, review of business and medical records, when the department has reasonable suspicion that the office is operating as an unlicensed pain management clinic. As part of this inspection process, the health care provider's office shall be required to produce evidence that the majority of its patient population is not receiving chronic nonmalignant pain treatment. If the health care provider's office is unable during the inspection process to provide satisfactory evidence that the office does not meet the definition of a pain management clinic, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the provider's office was operating as a pain management clinic in any administrative proceeding arising from such inspection process. The requirements for evidence under this section shall be established by rule. Any health care provider's office rebuttably presumed to be operating an unlicensed pain management clinic shall be prohibited from admitting any new patients to the practice immediately upon receipt of written notice to any provider at the clinic and all owners and providers at such clinic shall be subject to a hearing upon thirty (30) days' notice before the licensee's licensing board to consider whether the individual's license to practice should be revoked or otherwise disciplined. Pursuant to this part, the commissioner may promulgate rules providing for an informal advisory administrative hearing by a panel appointed by the commissioner to review the department's determination regarding the unlicensed operation of the clinic and to provide nonbinding recommendations to the commissioner concerning those determinations. The informal administrative hearing shall not be subject to the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5. Individuals appointed to any panel pursuant to this part shall be considered “state employees” for purposes of title 8, chapter 42, and § 9-8-307.