Dispute Over Invalid Addresses Holds Up Agreement on Removing Ineligible People from TennCare

Attorneys for the state of Tennessee and TennCare enrollees on Nov. 13 failed to reach an agreement on whether people with invalid addresses should be removed from the Medicaid managed care program, leading a federal judge to order both sides "to appear in court Nov. 14 prepared to compromise," the Nashville Tennessean reports (Lewis, Nashville Tennessean, 11/14). Last week, state officials said that they had identified 25,000 TennCare beneficiaries with "invalid addresses" and another 27,000 beneficiaries who have failed to pay their TennCare premiums for at least four months. By removing these 52,000 members from TennCare, officials said they may be able to lengthen the time period before the program exceeds its 1.5 million enrollee cap set by the state's Medicaid waiver (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 11/13). While removing enrollees who have not paid premiums is uncontroversial, Gordon Bonnyman, an attorney for TennCare enrollees, said yesterday that removing those who fail to file change-of-address notices with the state could result in the denial of benefits to qualified people because of flaws in the state's computerized record system. He said that in several instances, TennCare members informed the program of address changes but the program's computer files "were never updated or the information was erased." Attorneys for the state "refused to concede" any problems with the system (Nashville Tennessean, 11/14). The disagreement on this "minor technical" point "frustrated" U.S. District Court Judge William Haynes, who must approve any plan regarding state removal of beneficiaries from the TennCare rolls (Wade, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 11/14). "I think it's in the state's interest to make this as fair as possible," he said (Nashville Tennessean, 11/14).