TennCare Mails Health Plan Ballots to Enrollees
TennCare, Tennessee's Medicaid managed care program, will today mail "ballots" to more than 900,000 households statewide, giving enrollees a chance to choose new health plans for the first time in more than two years, the Nashville Tennessean reports. Beginning July 1, the number of insurers serving the program will expand from eight to 10. In addition, although three plans -- BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee's BlueCare, Access MedPLUS and Xantus Health Plan -- currently operate statewide, after July 1, Xantus will be limited to the "Middle Tennessee" area, while BlueCare will cut its enrollment from 600,000 to 300,000 and restrict operations to the state's eastern region. Health officials intend to give enrollees a choice of "three to four moderate-size companies in each of the three Grand Divisions of the state," as smaller health plans are easier to regulate and potentially less likely to encounter the "financial difficulties" that have affected TennCare managed care organizations in the past. Ballots will be delivered today to post offices in "nine tractor-trailer trucks," the Tennessean notes. Enrollees who fail to return a ballot by April 30 will be assigned to an MCO, but will have 90 days to request a change if they are unhappy with that plan (Snyder, Nashville Tennessean, 4/2).
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