Tennessee’s Medicaid agency is trying to avoid cutting benefits for people just because of paperwork problems. In April, TennCare will restart its income reviews, which have been paused for three years.
Agency officials provided an update to state lawmakers on Tuesday.
“It is easier now than ever before to update your demographic information with TennCare,” Kim Hagan, director of member services, told members of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee.
For months, TennCare has been pointing people to a website explaining the redetermination process that stopped because of the public health emergency. Typically, Medicaid programs have to verify income every year. And even in normal times, there have been big problems.
Members can now use the TennCare Connect app, an online portal, mail, phone or fax to put in their best contact information. But it’s still expected to be a challenge to find everyone over the next year. Each household will be assigned a month, so the process will be spread out over a full year.
TennCare rolls have ballooned to nearly 1.8 million, up from roughly 1.4 million at the start of the pandemic. In recent weeks, the agency sent out test mailings to everyone just to see how many people might have moved.
The state already expects that at least 350,000 people will lose coverage because they no longer qualify. But to avoid dropping people unnecessarily, TennCare is trying to sync its address database with other health insurers in the state.
The state’s Medicaid agency has also received permission from the federal government to use data from other income-based federal programs like food stamps. They hope to automatically renew as many people as possible.
“This renewal process will be a substantial undertaking,” TennCare director Stephen Smith said. “We are as prepared as we can be.”
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