Excerpts from HHS letter about TennCare compliance with federal law.Two national legal advocacy groups have joined a Tennessee organization to “closely monitor” how TennCare responds to federal demands that it repair a dysfunctional application process that has caused backlogs and long delays for people trying to get coverage.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights advocacy group, and the National Health Law Program, a nonprofit that litigates at the state and federal level, have been working with the Nashville-based Tennessee Justice Center, a public policy and advocacy group, to assess ongoing TennCare problems.
Michele Johnson, director of the Tennessee Justice Center, said Thursday that a lawsuit would be a “last resort” if Tenn-Care does not work quickly to address longstanding problems cited by the federal Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services in a letter to TennCare Director Darin Gordon.
The letter stated that Tennessee has failed to meet all but one of seven federal requirements to get a new eligibility system up and running under the Affordable Care Act.
“We need the state to take seriously the management failures that are resulting in the suffering of hundreds of Tennesseeans,” Johnson said. The Tennessee Justice Center has not brought a major lawsuit against the state since 1998.