A new study by the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, found the satisfaction rate among all TennCare recipients held steady at 94 percent, marking the 12th straight year above 90 percent. The Impact of TennCare: A Survey of Recipients, 2020, also showed the percentage of uninsured children in the state remained low at 2.8 percent.

NASHVILLE—The Division of TennCare and the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD) announced that more than 290 children have been enrolled in the Katie Beckett Program since it opened for applications in late November 2020.

Nashville – After more than a year of discussions and negotiations with the federal government, Tennessee’s Medicaid “Block Grant” waiver amendment received approval today by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Tennessee is the first state in the nation to be granted approval for this type of block grant arrangement, which will result in an innovative, alternative financing arrangement for its Medicaid program and provide additional flexibilities relative to its administration.

TennCare, Gainwell Technologies LLC and Axis Direct, Inc. announced today that they have notified approximately 3,300 Medicaid members in the State of Tennessee of a privacy issue that may have impacted their protected health information.

NASHVILLE—The Division of TennCare and the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD) announced the state’s new Katie Beckett Program has received federal approval and expects to begin taking self-referral forms on November 23, 2020.

Nashville – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released today new guidance, the Healthy Adult Opportunity initiative, which includes provisions that will support states seeking greater flexibility to improve the health of Medicaid populations. Below is a statement from TennCare in response to the new guidance.

Nashville – Tennessee’s Division of TennCare director Gabe Roberts announces today he is leaving Tennessee state government to return to the private sector. His anticipated last day will be Monday, March 2, 2020. Governor Lee has not yet named a successor to the position.

Nashville – The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced today that Tennessee is one of 10 states to receive the Maternal Opioid Misuse (MOM) Model grant. The purpose of this Model is to assist states in combating the nation’s opioid crisis and address fragmentation in the care of pregnant and postpartum Medicaid beneficiaries with opioid use disorder (OUD).

Nashville – TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid agency, is seeing positive results from several ambitious changes it has made to how health care is paid for and delivered in Tennessee. The reports released today from TennCare on its Delivery System Transformation programs provide the most complete picture to date of how the state’s innovative programs are resulting in improvements in the care that is being received by TennCare members as well as significant savings for Tennessee taxpayers. The three programs are Tennessee Health Link, Patient-Centered Medical Homes, and Episodes of Care.

Affordability continues to be a major hindrance to obtaining health insurance as the percentage of all Tennesseans, adults and children, without coverage increased from 6.7 percent in 2018 to 6.9 percent this year, according to a new report by the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This increase is consistent with nationwide trends.

Tennessee’s overall uninsured rate is now at 6.7 percent, an increase from 6.1 percent in 2017 but still well below levels before the Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2014, according to a new report released by the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research in the University of Tennessee Knoxville’s Haslam College of Business.

A University of Tennessee, Knoxville report released today shows that Tennessee’s overall uninsured rate increased from the 2016 level of 5.5 percent to 6 percent in 2017. Nonetheless, the reported uninsured rate is still at one of the lowest levels in the past two decades. The report entitled The Impact of TennCare: A Survey of Recipients, 2017, released by UT’s Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research, summarizes findings from a survey conducted between May and July 2017.

Nashville – Today Dr. Wendy Long, director of TennCare, the state of Tennessee’s Medicaid program, announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) granted a five-year extension of Tennessee’s section 1115 demonstration, TennCare II. The new approval period ends on June 30, 2021.

KNOXVILLE—For the third year in a row, the estimated number of uninsured people in Tennessee dropped, according to a report released today by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research, which is housed in the Haslam College of Business.

Nashville – Dr. Wendy Long, director of TennCare, the state of Tennessee’s Medicaid program, announced today that doctors and hospitals reduced costs while maintaining quality of care in the first year of TennCare’s episodes of care value-based payment strategy.