Tennessee Must Fix TennCare Eligibility Reverification Process, Editorial Says

The eligibility reverification process for TennCare, Tennessee's Medicaid managed care program, "will exacerbate human suffering in this state" by "denying health insurance to tens of thousands of Tennesseans, many of whom are too poor or sick to get coverage elsewhere," a Memphis Commercial Appeal editorial states (Memphis Commercial Appeal, 11/2). The process is the result of a federal waiver the state received earlier this year that allows officials to restructure TennCare benefits and eligibility. The state has sent out three rounds of letters -- the first was sent in July -- asking beneficiaries to complete the reverification process at their local Department of Health Services office within 90 days. Two additional batches of letters were mailed in August and September; recipients face deadlines of Nov. 29 and Dec. 29, respectively. About 159,000 beneficiaries are expected to lose coverage because of the process; the state on Nov. 1 cut 77,000 people from the program because they failed to reply to the reverification notice by the Oct. 29 deadline (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 11/1). The reverification process "will place added stress on health care facilities and further tax overcrowded hospital emergency rooms" because many people will no longer have health coverage, the editorial states, adding that the "damage is compounded by credible evidence" that many people who lost TennCare coverage actually are still eligible for the program. Efforts such as the state hiring agencies to help "find and interview" TennCare beneficiaries for reverification and creating a procedure for beneficiaries to appeal lost coverage "may not be sufficient to catch every client who falls through the cracks," the editorial maintains. TennCare needs to "handle the reverification process efficiently and fairly" and the state must fix the system "before the process of removing people from TennCare goes any farther" the editorial adds. In the meantime, "the reapplication deadline ... needs to be extended," the editorial concludes (Memphis Commercial Appeal, 11/2).