TennCare

Daniels Video Conference for Advocates and Consumers

Were you, a loved one, or a patient/client in the Daniels class and now being cut off TennCare? Learn more about what you what you can do to keep TennCare if you are eligible. For those not eligible, learn about other options.

More than 130,000 Tennesseans Will Lose Coverage

On January 8, 2009 a Federal judge allowed the state to begin redetermining the eligibility of more than 100,000 people on TennCare. Since a court order was issued in 1987, children and adults who received and subsequently lost SSI (Supplemental Security Income) were allowed to keep their TennCare. To receive SSI, a person must be determined aged, blind, or disabled by the Social Security Administration and have little or no income. The judge's decision opens the door for tens of thousands of disenrollments of some of our state's most vulnerable residents. Read the Daniels decision.

Tennessee Legislature Approves Home Health Limits

Despite the hard work of TennCare enrollees, advocates, and some state legislators, the legislature passed the 2008 home health limits. Nearly 1,000 Tennesseans and their families are affected by these rules, which limit home health care to at most 40 hours per week for nearly all adult enrollees. ACTION ALERT: Tell your story! Are you being hurt by the cuts? Write a letter to your local newspaper or call your local TV station and ask them to do a story on this problem.

Are You or a Loved One Suffering from the Home Health Cuts?

Get more information about how to appeal here. For updates about Crabtree v. Goetz, a case challenging the home health cuts, click here.

Daniels Class: Are you on TennCare? And did you use to get SSI checks?

Here's what to do to help keep your TennCare. <more>

NEW! Did you get the Peach Pages (peach colored forms)? Click for more information on what to do next. And how to appeal.

NEW! Has TennCare told you that you will lose your TennCare ? Click for more information on what to do now. And how to appeal.

New "LEASE" for Foster Families

TJC announces its Legal Education, Advocacy, Services, & Empowerment (LEASE) project. This project helps middle Tennessee foster children enrolled in TennCare obtain needed health and mental health services. <more>

Myths and Realities

Read the 20 myths we hear every day about TennCare. You'll be suprised by the truth. <Start the countdown!>

Don't just take our word for it

The cuts to TennCare mean over 200,000 people have lost access to health care and the remaining 396,000 adults on TennCare are subject to arbitrary limits in prescriptions and services. Children, too, are at risk of losing essential coverage due to new definitions of “medical necessity.” Read the words of activists, journalists, religious leaders, advocates and researchers across the state and nation who have spoken against Tennessee’s new policies. <more>

The TennCare Cuts: Plunging Into the Unknown

The collapse of the TennCare program has shocked Tennessee’s health care system in a way that no other state has ever experienced.  Read about the consequences of TennCare disenrollment in this article by TJC Executive Director Gordon Bonnyman for Tennessee's Business, a publication of Middle Tennessee State University’s Business and Economic Research Center. <more>

Just the Facts

The State says it never wanted to cut TennCare. But, in reality, it fully intended to make these cuts. Claiming that TennCare cuts were forced onto the Administration by legal action is incorrect. <more>

Report: No Shelter from the Storm: America's Uninsured Children

A comprehensive analysis by Families USA of the newest data available from the Census Bureau on uninsured children. The report shows that, contrary to popular belief, most uninsured children live in two-parent families where both parents are working. It also discusses the effects of being uninsured as a child. Key findings include the fact that uninsured children are more than 13 times as likely to lack a usual source of care and five times as likely to have an unmet need. <more>

Tennessee state fact sheet <click here>

How Does Tennessee Treat Its Children Compared to Other States?

Click logo for one-stop-shopping for the latest information from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured about Tennessee's children's health coverage and health status information, as well as Medicaid and SCHIP eligibility, enrollment and spending data for children.

EPSDT and Appeals PowerPoint

This presentation was done for a session of the National Head Start Association Annual Training Conference in Nashville, TN in April 2008. See the PowerPoint here.

Look Closely at the Budget

A close look at state budget documents reflects poorly on the state's money management. The state hasn't saved any money overall, or reduced the number of government bureaucrats: All the savings have been accrued to the federal government. <more>

Home-Based vs. Institutionalized Care

Tennesseans say they want their family members who are elderly or disabled to remain at home or in the community as long as possible.  But most of Tennessee's long term care spending is on institutional, usually nursing home care.  Why is our state wasting money on care that no one wants? <more>

Hurdles to Care

The State will cut $1.2 billion of federal funds from health services from TennCare in the next few years. Click here to look more closely at the state budget. The cuts are a conscious decision to save money by denying care to people with severe health problems. There are now three major hurdles to care. <more>

The Faces of TennCare

In a small town south of Nashville, the poor, sick and elderly are living—and dying. This Thanksgiving, their stories of tragedy and humanity. <Read their story>

Portraits By Joon Powell

These are the faces of some 200,000 Tennesseans whose medical insurance has been slashed from TennCare... <See their portraits>

 

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Click to read TJC TennCare stories

Issue Briefs

100,000 still in need

Racial disparities in TennCare Cuts

TennCare cuts cost us all

The TennCare Cuts:
Plunging Into the Unknown

The Rise and Fall of TennCare: A Saga of State-Based Health Reform


Resources

TennCare Eligibility Chart

TennCare Standard

TennCare Medicaid: Revised Regulations
Updated October 2006 [pdf]

Your Doctor's Worst Nightmare:
Kaiser Brief on Medical Necessity

Center on Law and Social Policy

National Center for Law and Economic Justice

National Health Law Program

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Read about others who opposed the TennCare cuts.

get involved
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