PEER REVIEW: DISCOVERABILITY

Roy v. City of Harriman, No. E2007-00785-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. June 30, 2008)

The Appellate Court of Tennessee granted summary judgment to a physician who provided an adverse recommendation to a health insurance company peer review committee concerning a physician who had applied to become a participating provider with that health insurance company. The peer review document was "leaked" to the physician who was the subject of that document, who then sued the physician who provided the adverse recommendation for slander and defamation. The physician moved to exclude this document based on the state peer review statute. Because the peer review document was leaked to the physician, the court had to determine if the privilege afforded by the Tennessee Peer Review statute applied to the "use" as well as the "discovery" of the information. The court interpreted the statute to bar both the use and discovery of the privileged information. The court reasoned that if it were to decide that privileged documents were not discoverable, but otherwise admissible, then no documents would be immune from use in a civil proceeding under Peer Review Law.