The Bredesen administration announced today it’s not going to pursue the diabetes mall that was part of the Cover Tennessee health plan. Several senators yesterday criticized the location and the price tag.
The mall would have put several specialties related to caring for complex diabetes cases in one building.
State Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz says the idea isn’t permanently dead.
“Clearly we had a lot of questions about it in committee yesterday so we decided it was, that we could achieve a lot of what we wanted to achieve through grants, we could then come back with the diabetes mall concept and bring it back next year.”
The administration is going to split the 14-million dollars left in this section of the plan between two places. Part would go to a non-profit the state is creating, that will dole out the funds to health clinics to shore up diabetes care. The other part will go towards paying for premium assistance for those trying to get into the Access Tennessee high-risk pool. The exact numbers for each are still in flux
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