At a Congressional field hearing in Brentwood today, hospital and Tenncare officials said that the cost of emergency room care for illegal immigrants is a just a fraction of the cost of caring for the uninsured.
Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn hosted the hearing with Georgia Congressman Nathan Deal. State legislators, Tenncare officials, and local hospitals all testified today.
Tenncare’s Deputy Commissioner Darin Gordon said that compared to the 1.2 million enrolled in Tenncare, the number of illegal immigrants that receive Tenncare services is “extremely small”.
“In the month of July, we provided emergency room services for 62 illegal immigrants to our state’s hospitals.”
A federal law allows illegal immigrants to receive care at emergency rooms if they meet Tenncare’s income qualifications. Services are given for that ER visit only; they don’t remain on Tenncare after that.
Gary Perizzo oversees accounting at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He confirmed that Vanderbilt’s experience is similar, and estimated the cost of providing care to illegal immigrants to be 3.8 million dollars a year.
“Although it is significant, it pales in comparison to the overall uncompensated care Vanderbilt provides in this community.”
Representative Blackburn seemed surprised to hear that the cost of caring for illegal immigrants was not more significant.
“We are hearing from our local governments that our emergency rooms are full, that our health clinics, our community health centers are full, we’ve got a disconnect somewhere and I want to find out where that disconnect is.”
Tenncare officials say the discrepancy may be in the number of illegal immigrants who are treated, for which the hospital doesn’t receive any reimbursement.
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