Federal court: TennCare illegally terminated health coverage for thousands

Tennessee’s Medicaid safety net program unlawfully terminated coverage for thousands of Tennessee families, running afoul of the Constitution, federal Medicaid law and protections for people with disabilities, a federal court ruled Monday.

TennCare — which provides health coverage for about 1.5 million Tennesseans — failed to properly evaluate the eligibility of thousands of families, intentionally withheld information those families needed to have their coverage reinstated, and “sat on its hands for months before it fixed system-wide errors that … resulted in wrongful terminations of disabled individuals,” according to the ruling.

A class of 35 children and adults who had been terminated from TennCare filed the class-action suit in 2020.

As Tennessee’s Medicaid program, TennCare is the main health coverage provider for people in rural areas, people with disabilities, children and the elderly, according to the Tennessee Justice Center, a nonprofit that is among the attorneys representing the plaintiffs.




https://tennesseelookout.com/2024/08/26/federal-court-tenncare-illegally-terminated-health-coverage-for-thousands/