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UPDATE: 2/1/2024 - SB 2140 was referred to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on 2/1/2024.
UPDATE: 1/31/2024 - HB 2157 was assigned to the House Health Subcommittee on 1/31/2024.
UPDATE: 1/31/2024 - HB 2157 was referred to the House Health Committee on 1/31/2024.
HB 2157 was introduced in the House on 1/29/2024. This bill is sponsored by Representative Tim Hicks.
SB 2140 was introduced in the Senate on 1/31/2024. This bill is sponsored by Senator Shane Reeves.
HB 2157 and SB 2140 require health care providers vaccinating a minor to record proof of prior parental or guardian informed consent in minor’s electronic medical record. Existing law requires that this proof of prior parental or guardian informed consent be documented in the minor's medical record. These bills are adding the requirement that the informed consent documentation is added to the minor's electronic medical record, not just a paper record kept within the medical provider's office.
HB 2157 and SB 2140 amend Tennessee Code Annotate §63-1-165(c)(1), related to provision of information prior to administration of vaccinations to minors, parental consent required, and violations, to add the requirement that the parent or guardian's proof of prior informed consent to vaccinating a minor be added to the minor's electronic medical record, not just their medical record that may be in paper form as required in existing law.
NVIC SUPPORTS HB 2157 and SB 2140 because they protect informed consent to vaccination for a minor and their parent or guardian by requiring the medical provider to obtain informed consent for the electronic medical record before vaccinating the minor. While obtaining informed consent is already required by law, these bills add an extra layer of protection to ensure that a minor is not vaccinated without the consent of their parent or guardian and that informed consent will follow the minor to any other medical provider they use as the electronic medical records can be shared with patient's consent. This allows a parent who refuses to give consent the reassurance that their choice to refuse a vaccination is going to be noted in both the paper medical record per existing law, and also in the child's electronic medical record per HB 2157 and SB 2140 that will be accessible at other medical provider offices and hospitals reducing the risk of duplicate, unwanted, or unnecessary vaccination. NVIC supports informed consent to all vaccinations, including the right to refuse. An improvement to these bills would be to add an opt-in consent for the parent or guardian to choose to have their minor's vaccine records added to the electronic medical record. Some parents may not want their child's vaccine records added to an electronic medical record that could be later co-opted by a state or federal vaccine tracking database and shared with a third-party government entity without the parent's knowledge or consent. Vaccine tracking systems are used to target people who are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated to increase vaccination rates and have been coupled with coercion, threats, or even punishment and discrimination based on vaccine status. Adding an opt-in consent to electronic vaccine record keeping would be an improvement to these bills and prevent future threats of tracking and discrimination based on vaccine status.
https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/default.aspx?BillNumber=HB2157&GA=113 - text, status, and history of HB 2157
https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=SB2140&GA=113 - text, status, and history of SB 2140
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