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HHS Approves TennCare II Medicaid Waiver U.S. Newswire 31 May 13:31 HHS Approves TennCare II Medicaid Waiver; Redesigned ProgramOffers New Benefit Packages For Eligible Tennessee ResidentsTo: National Desk Contact: CMS Press Office, 202-690-6145 WASHINGTON, May 31 /U.S. Newswire/ -- HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today approved a new Medicaid demonstration program for the state of Tennessee. The redesigned TennCare II program will be effective July 1, and is expected to provide health care services to nearly 1.4 million low-income Tennesseans. "Today, we are strengthening a program that has made a tremendous difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of...

House passes TennCare reform bill By TOM SHARP Associated Press Writer May 29, 2002 NASHVILLE, Tenn.- The state House on Wednesday voted 98-0 for a bill to give the Legislature a greater say in how TennCare is run, seizing for the first time some control over a program managed by the executive branch. The TennCare reform bill makes many of the changes suggested by the Sundquist administration in its pending request with the federal government to change how the program operates. But it goes further by putting those proposals into law, and the Legislature into the decision-making process. "For the...

Study: Some state health budgets sicker By The Associated Press May 19, 2002 CHATTANOOGA - Rising health-care costs have strained the state budget in Tennessee, but not as much as in some other states, according to a new study by the National Governors Association. "We've been saying that for a long time," said Lola Potter, spokeswoman for TennCare, the $5.3 billion federal-state managed care program for the poor and uninsurable. "Other states are having terrible problems with Medicaid." Health-care costs for TennCare are projected to increase 8.6 percent this fiscal year, compared to the national average of 13.4 percent, according...

<p>The state has temporarily suspended its court-ordered rechecking of TennCare enrollees, a step that some TennCare advocates said would result in potential payments to insurance companies for people who should not be receiving care.</p> <p>During the short suspension, the state will shift the eligibility process from county health departments to caseworkers at the Department of Human Services.</p>

Hit-or-myth 'fixers' set their scopes on TennCare By Paula Wade wade@gomemphis.com April 29, 2002 NASHVILLE - "Just fix TennCare" has become a popular rallying cry for the state's legislative and gubernatorial campaigns, with candidates from both parties using a blend of fact, supposition and myth about the $5.4 billion health program. TennCare, which provides health insurance for the state's poorest residents, makes an easy target for political rhetoric because of its size, complexities, management problems and the pervasive belief - disputed by the state's budget experts - that "fixing" TennCare would end the state's financial problems. "I get so tired...

Millions of TennCare dollars improperly spent The Associated Press NASHVILLE -- A new state audit finds that TennCare improperly spent millions of dollars to provide benefits to thousands of potentially ineligible enrollees, including many who don't live in the state or used post office box numbers for their addresses. The findings are likely to provide more fodder for lawmakers and gubernatorial and legislative candidates who say TennCare must be reformed before taxpayers should be asked for any more money. But TennCare officials say many of the problems found in the audit, which covered July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2001,...

<p>The state's embattled TennCare program inappropriately spent more than $48 million last year to provide health-care benefits to thousands of enrollees who did not live in Tennessee or who listed post-office box numbers as their addresses, an annual audit of the program shows.</p>

Sundquist poses TennCare retool 'Stabilization' shifts risk from MCOs to state By Paula Wade wade@gomemphis.com April 20, 2002 NASHVILLE - Gov. Don Sundquist is proposing a "stabilization plan" for TennCare that will shift the insurance risk of the $5.6 billion health program from its ailing private MCOs to the state. The move is a radical retooling of TennCare's business structure, in which the state would essentially self-insure TennCare enrollees and pay managed care organizations a fee plus cost-savings incentives to manage the system. Currently, MCOs are paid a monthly per-patient fee and are expected to pay for their enrollees' health...

Criminal probe looks at Access...MedPlus, where money went By Paula Wade wade@gomemphis.com April 8, 2002 NASHVILLE - A federal grand jury is studying the results of a months-long probe of Access. . .MedPlus, the defunct TennCare managed care organization that has been under investigation by a task force including the FBI, TBI, IRS and the Department of Justice. Investigators have interviewed state officials and former company officials regarding the firm's operations, its complex structure of related companies and the flow of hundreds of millions of state and federal tax dollars intended to provide health care for TennCare enrollees. Although Access...

Inmates' hotline job defended amid probe By Paula Wade wade@gomemphis.com April 3, 2002 NASHVILLE - State officials said Tuesday that about 30 female prisoners who help field calls to the TennCare Hotline have access to the birth dates and Social Security numbers of patients. They also confirmed that Gail Owens, a death row prisoner from Shelby County, does clerical work in the TennCare Hotline office at Tennessee Prison for Women here, although she does not answer phones or have direct contact with callers. Both state officials and TennCare advocates said they consider the use of prison inmates for the TennCare...

Officials say TennCare not without problems, but better than Medicaid Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The state's health insurance program is bloated, bureaucratic and wasteful, said Dr. Charles W. White Sr., a family physician in West Tennessee. Yet, he doesn't pine for the past. White, a former president of the Tennessee Medical Association, believes it's important to remember the motives for creating the $5.8 billion program for 1.4 million poor and uninsured people. "The old system was a huge money losing situation," said White, who was TMA president when TennCare was developed in the early 90s. "I don't think we...