State Files to Dismiss John B.

The Bredesen administration filed to dismiss a long-standing TennCare consent decree yesterday.

The John B. consent decree was entered into in 1998, with the aim of making sure the state was providing necessary and preventative medical care for children. The state and the Tennessee Justice Center, a non-profit law firm that filed the original suit, have been revisiting John B. in court this year.

The state has said it’s now in compliance with the mandates of the consent decree, and state spokeswoman Lola Potter says it’s become unnecessary.

“I can’t emphasize the amount of resources, the amount of paperwork, the number of hours that policy people have put into responding to a lawsuit. We need to put those resources in doing what Tenncare has done best, and that’s providing care for children.”

Earlier this year, the sixth circuit court of appeals appointed outside monitors to study whether the state is actually in compliance. That report is due out at the end of the year. Tennessee Justice Center attorney Michelle Johnson says the state’s move to throw out the consent decree is based on a similar case in Michigan.

“It’s a pretty tenuous legal argument. The only way it could possibly be understood is not in the legal paradigm but in the public relations paradigm of understanding they’re desperate to distract from what the monitors are likely to say about how they’ve managed for the 600-thousand children whose lives depend upon it.”

The TJC has until mid-December to file its brief, after which hearings on the issue will be held.