TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Aug 25, 2020

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit yesterday upheld a federal judge’s ruling against a group of Tennessee prisoners suffering from hepatitis C who sued the Tennessee Department of Corrections in 2016 for its “deliberate indifference” to their serious medical needs, the Associated Press reports. The complaint stems from a 2016 TDOC policy that, because of the high cost of the medication, rationed out hepatitis C treatments only to those with severe cases—a practice the plaintiffs argued violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The 6th Circuit’s 2-1 decision upheld the federal judge’s ruling rejecting that claim, saying that TDOC’s limited resources made it reasonable to prioritize treatments. U.S. Circuit Judge Ronald Lee Gilman dissented, writing that officials cannot refuse treatment of a patient with a serious medical need “merely to avoid the bill.”