Need to appeal?
If you have waited for a decision for more than 45 days (or more than 90 days if you applied for long-term care) you can ask TennCare for a "delay hearing".To start the process, call 1-855-259-0701 or visit http://www.tn.gov/tenncare/mem-eligibappeal.shtml to print out a form and find mailing instructions.You may be able to enroll your baby right now.If you are already on TennCare, call 1-855-259-0701 when you have your baby.If you are on CoverKids, call 1-866-620-8864.If you don't have TennCare or CoverKids, you can apply for your baby over the phone. Call 1-855-259-0701.
Tennessee's Medicaid agency will try to overturn a federal judge's ruling that ordered the agency to take responsibility for long delays in getting applications processed.
Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper filed notice of the appeal Friday. The case will now head to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The appeal seeks to reverse the decision handed down this month by Nashville U.S. District Court Judge Todd J. Campbell, who ordered TennCare to hold hearings for people who have faced month-long delays getting their Medicaid applications processed.
Campbell also granted class-action status to a lawsuit, meaning anyone in the state dealing with such delays can be given a hearing.
The ruling followed months of complaints from Tennesseans who say their TennCare applications have remained unanswered for months, and that their follow-up queries have fallen on deaf ears.
The delays led first to a federal reprimand, then the lawsuit filed in July against the state by a coalition of civil rights groups on behalf of 11 people, including newborns and people with chronic health problems.
State officials have blamed the long applications delays on the federal government, since the state has been sending TennCare applicants to the federally run health care insurance exchange, Healthcare.gov, while its own computer system to process applications remains unfinished.
Though the state has appealed the ruling, Tenn- Care spokesman John Goets said the state "nevertheless respects the Court's order," and that until a judge rules on the appeal "TennCare will continue to comply with the order to allow people to appeal delays to TennCare."
The head of the Tennessee Justice Center, one of the advocacy groups that sued the state agency, said the appeal is another example "of the state turning its back on its citizens."
"Tennesseans are suffering while the state continues to play games," said Michele Johnson, executive director of the center. "The state is running away from its responsibility, while Tennessee families risk bankruptcy, needless pain and all of us risk irreparable harm to our state's health care infrastructure."
The Southern Poverty Law Center, another of the groups that sued the state, issued a statement saying they were frustrated that the state "continues to refuse to take any responsibility for the problems it has created."
"We are disappointed the state continues to resist giving its citizens a fair chance to have their Medicaid applications adjudicated, and would rather fight in court than address the needs of Tennesseans suffering without medical coverage," said staff attorney Sam Brooke.
While Johnson and Brooke said they are confident they will prevail in the appeals court, she said the group's "greatest concern is the harm unfolding in households across the state by denying people the vitally needed health care their lives and futures depend upon."
Contact staff writer Kate Harrison Belz at kbelz@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6673.