More than 37,000 additional Tennesseans were poised to lose their TennCare coverage in July as part of the state insurance provider’s post-pandemic unwinding process, according to a report released last week.
TennCare is in the midst of a 12-month unwinding process, which began in April, to recertify each of its 1.7 million members. In July, more than 150,000 people were up for renewal, based on their pre-pandemic renewal month — the highest number yet. Of those who lost coverage, the largest portion, 27,701 people, failed to return the required renewal packet. In addition, 8,393 were found ineligible, and TennCare requested additional information from 1,471 members, with 40 days to produce the material. Members also have 90 days to appeal if they were not initially approved.
TennCare was also able to auto-renew 72,342 members, and 22,598 were approved through responding to renewal packets.
Overall, there were 274,581 members renewed as of the end of July numbers, and about 146,183 removed since April.
In June, more than 31,000 Tennesseans lost their TennCare coverage, out of a smaller batch of approximately 80,000 up for renewal. Of those, 21,500 failed to return required renewal information, 7,383 were deemed ineligible and 5,300 were asked for additional information from TennCare. In April, roughly 48,000 TennCare users were renewed and more than 30,000 lost coverage, while in May nearly 50,000 people were renewed and more than 25,000 lost coverage.
Due to the federal public health emergency, TennCare paused its renewal process from January 2020 until April, causing enrollment to swell from a typical 1.4 million people to 1.7 million. The TennCare renewal process has not gone smoothly in the past, with clerical errors and barriers to online access causing eligible Tennesseans to lose access. In August, 35 adults and children from Tennessee filed a class action lawsuit challenging the state for wrongful termination from the TennCare during the renewal process.
"We are using multiple forms of communication to try and reach members including text, email, and paper notifications, so it’s important that people open and respond to communication from TennCare," says Amy Lawrence, TennCare spokesperson.
"It’s also important to note what we are seeing in Tennessee is similar to the experiences of other Medicaid agencies," Lawrence added. "As has been true since the start of the unwinding, we remain one of a minority of states that do not require a mitigation plan from CMS, which is a reflection of all the work we have done to be prepared for renewals.
This article was first published via our sister publication, the Nashville Post.
