Senate Bill 2620 aims to amend the Hospital Cooperation Act of 1993 by addressing the issues surrounding the monopoly created by Ballad Health in upper east Tennessee. The bill outlines several findings, including the failure of Ballad Health to meet its charity care obligations by approximately $148 million over four years and a significant decline in the quality of care at its hospitals. The bill criticizes the Tennessee Department of Health and the Attorney General for allowing these harms to persist, including the waiving of charity care obligations and the cessation of public hearings to gather community feedback. Ultimately, the General Assembly concludes that the Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA) experiment has failed and that the public benefits do not outweigh the disadvantages.

To reinforce this conclusion, the bill introduces new legal language that prohibits hospitals from negotiating or entering into anti-competitive agreements and restricts state funds or employees from engaging in activities that could be perceived as supervising anti-competitive conduct in the healthcare sector. This legislative change emphasizes a shift in policy towards promoting competition among hospitals, aligning with the belief that healthy competition serves the best interests of the public. The act will take effect upon becoming law and will apply to contracts and agreements executed, modified, or renewed after the effective date.