Information Blocking Complaint
How long has the hospital withheld Wesley's medical records?
What Is Information Blocking?
The 21st Century Cures Act is a federal law that gives patients the right to access their own electronic health information. It prohibits hospitals, health IT companies, and other healthcare actors from knowingly interfering with that access.
Violations are investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG), which has authority to impose civil monetary penalties of up to $1 million per violation against healthcare providers who block access to patient records.
Who We Filed Against
On April 7, 2026, Wesley and Colleen Crawford filed a formal information blocking complaint with HHS OIG against Tennova Healthcare North Knoxville Medical Center (“Tennova North”) and its IT/records parent company CHSPSC, LLC, a subsidiary of Community Health Systems, Inc.
Scroll below to see the complaint we filed, and the three exhibits we filed with the complaint.
What Happened
In November 2022, Wesley Crawford was admitted to Tennova North for emergency treatment. He has never received any of his medical records from that admission despite more than three years of requests through every available channel — written requests, mediation, statutory pre-suit notice, HIPAA authorization, written requests from the defendants’ counsel, who is blocking access to the records, and active federal court intervention requests.
In September 2023, when Mr. Crawford was admitted to another hospital’s ICU with life-threatening kidney failure, Tennova North refused to transmit his records to treating physicians during the emergency. His kidney condition has continued to deteriorate.
The complaint documents four distinct phases of blocking spanning from December 2022 through the date of filing, involving hospital executives, a corporate representative, and defense counsel who was placed between the patient and his own records before any lawsuit was filed.
The withheld records include kidney function tests, diagnostic results, nephrology consultation notes, medication error reports, and restraint documentation from the original 2022 admission — records that are needed for Mr. Crawford’s ongoing medical care today.
Notice to the District Court
Information Blocking Complaint
The following document was filed with HHS OIG, but was also attached as Exhibit 1 to the Court Notice above.
The following three exhibits were attached to the complaint filed with the HHS OIG.
Exhibit 1: Doc. 37 Case No. 3:25-cv-00516
Exhibit 2: Doc. 38 Case No. 3:25-cv-00516
Exhibit 3: Doc. 39 Case No. 3:25-cv-00516
STATUS
April 7, 2026: Complaint was filed.
May 13, 2026: Update Received
Your claim of potential information blocking has been shared with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG). ONC has authority to review claims of potential information blocking against health IT developers of certified health IT that may constitute a non-conformity under the ONC Health IT Certification Program. Separately, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) has authority to investigate claims of potential information blocking across all types of actors: health care providers, health IT developers of certified health IT, and health information networks/health information exchanges. Therefore, ONC shares all claims of potential information blocking with OIG without evaluating the merits, content, or strength of the claim, and without regard to OIG’s authority or discretion to investigate your claim.