Every person, firm, association, corporation, institution, or any governmental unit, including the state of Tennessee, any county or municipalities operating and maintaining a hospital in this state, shall have a lien for all reasonable and necessary charges for hospital care, treatment and maintenance of ill or injured persons upon any and all causes of action, […]
In order to perfect such lien, the agent or operator of the hospital, before or within one hundred twenty (120) days after any such person shall have been discharged therefrom, shall file in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of the county in which the hospital is located, and in the county […]
The clerk of the circuit court shall endorse on such claim the date and hour of filing and at the expense of the county shall provide a hospital lien book with proper index in which the clerk shall enter the date and hour of such filing, the name and address of the hospital, the operator […]
No release or satisfaction or any action, suit, claim, counterclaim, demand, judgment, settlement or settlement agreement, or any of them, shall be valid or effectual as against such lien unless the lienholder shall join therein or execute a release of the lien. Any acceptance of a release or satisfaction of any such cause of action, […]
To release a perfected lien as described under this chapter, the operator of the hospital to whom the lien has been duly paid shall execute a certificate to the effect that the claim filed by such hospital for treatment, care and maintenance therein has been duly paid or discharged and authorizing the clerk in whose […]
No person, firm, or corporation, paying a claim, demand, or judgment shall include the name of any lien claimant, under this chapter, as a payee on any drafts or checks issued to settle such claims, demands, or judgments.
This chapter shall not be construed as giving any hospital an independent right of action to determine liability for injuries sustained by any person covered herein nor shall any settlement or compromise of a claim entered into on behalf of such person require the approval of the hospital.
