What clinics in Tennessee must do when an AI agent answers the phone.

Under the statute below, the consent of one party to the call is enough. Federal law lets a party to a call record it, so the federal rule applies the same way here.

• Tennessee Code (Justia copy, read from web.archive.org): Tenn. Code 39-13-601(b)(5), read from a non-official copy“where the person is a party to the communication or where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to the interception”

We found no Tennessee law that requires telling a caller they are speaking with an AI. Tenn. Code 33-1-205 (SB 1580, Public Chapter 647, effective 2026-07-01 by its text) bars a person who develops or deploys an AI system from advertising or representing that it is, or can act as, a qualified mental health professional. A violation is a Consumer Protection Act violation. It has no disclosure duty.

• Tennessee General Assembly: Tenn. Code 33-1-205 (SB 1580)“shall not advertise or represent to the public that such system is or is able to act as a qualified mental health professional”

The Tennessee Information Protection Act, effective 2025-07-01, does not apply to a covered entity or business associate governed by the HIPAA privacy, security and breach notification rules. HIPAA still binds a covered clinic and its business associate vendor.

• Tennessee Secretary of State: Tenn. Code 47-18-3210(a)(4) (Public Chapter 408 of 2023)“A covered entity or business associate governed by the privacy, security, and breach notification rules issued by the United States department of health and human services, 45 CFR Parts 160 and 164 established pursuant to HIPAA”

A new Tennessee law (Public Chapter 1029 of 2026, Tenn. Code 65-4-411) requires a person who makes telephone solicitations using an automated dialing system to deliver artificial or prerecorded voice messages to residential subscribers to keep a monthly count of them. From 2026-10-01 a caller making 500 or more such solicitations a month must give copies of the records to the Public Utility Commission at least every six months. It covers solicitation only. We did not retrieve the older automated dialing text in Tenn. Code 47-18-1502 and 47-18-1501. The federal rules on AI-voice calls and texts apply as well.

• Tennessee Secretary of State: Public Chapter 1029 (2026), Tenn. Code 65-4-411(a)(1)“A person or entity that makes telephone solicitations using an automated telephone dialing system to deliver artificial or prerecorded voice messages to residential subscribers in this state shall maintain a record of the number of such telephone solicitations made each month.”

We found no statement from the Tennessee Board of Dentistry on AI agents. Our check was a web search, not a search of the board's own site, so this is not proof of absence.

We found no statement from the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners on AI agents. A November 2023 medical board memo lists an artificial intelligence meeting and an FSMB AI symposium trip, per a search snippet; it gives no guidance. Our check was a web search, not a search of the board's own site, so this is not proof of absence.

The federal rule applies here; nothing specific to this place was found.

The ADA requires a public accommodation to provide effective real-time communication, including text telephones and FCC-approved relay systems. A clinic phone line answered by an AI agent must still work for a relay caller.

• eCFR: 28 CFR 36.303(d)(1), effective communication (current to 2026-10-16)“effective real-time communication ... including text telephones (TTYs) and all forms of FCC-approved telecommunications relay systems, including Internet-based relay systems.”