New TennCare Commissioner Wants to Improve Enrollee Health

TennCare chief financial officer Darin Gordon officially assumed the post of TennCare director last week, as outgoing director J.D. Hickey announced late Friday that he’s leaving for the private sector.

Gordon joined TennCare in 2002 and has been financial officer through Governor Phil Bredesen’s reforms to the financially troubled program that included last year’s disnenrollment of 170-thousand people.

Gordon says as commissioner, he wants to focus on improving the health of enrollees. He says that will include more compliance measures for the managed care companies to incentivize them to increase disease screenings and vaccinations.

“One of the great things about taking this job is being able to have the impact of influencing of improving the health of over 1.2 million people. I think this is an area of focus the whole team has bought into.”

Gordon also hopes to have the medically needy category reopened in the near future. That category, for those whose medical bills reduce their net income to well below poverty, was closed last year. TennCare had to seek a waiver from the federal government to re-open that category since it is changing some of the eligibility requirements.

Hickey will remain in his post for the remainder of the week while Gordon transitions to the director’s position.