For years, Tennesseans with disabilities have been promised care that never arrives. In many cases, this broken promise is because of a lack of available and accessible providers, like doctors, specialists, therapists, nurses and home health workers. These are vital supports and services that allow Tennesseans with disabilities to live and thrive in our communities and in lives of their choosing. The current state of the provider network holds us back.
Access to these providers is the responsibility of TennCare and their contracted partners, like United Health Care, Wellpoint and Blue Cross Blue Shield. But they say there’s no problem here. But we all know there is, and it’s time for us to prove it.
HB711/SB706 requires TennCare and it’s partners to publish three new data points regarding their provider network adequacy:
- Percent service utilization (how much you get vs. how much you were promised)
- Average appointment wait time
- Average time between approval for services and the start of that service
Further, this new data is broken down by service or care type, county, Medicaid waiver group and demographics. This data will tell us exactly what services are unavailable, where they are unavailable and for whom. This information can help us leverage TennCare and its contractors to fix the broken Medicaid provider network.
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Thank you for you consideration in recording a video to tell your personal story about care, supports and services that were promised to you by TennCare, but never arrived.
Your video can be up to 3 minutes long. Your video is most effective if it makes this issue personal – you might consider describing the importance of the care, supports and services that you were promised.
It would be particularly effective to describe your “percent service utilization”, which is the extent of services promised to you in the person-centered planning process (for example, 25 hours of personal care assistance) versus what you actually received (5 hours).
It would be likewise impactful to describe how long you previously waited or are currently waiting for a service promised to you.
Please remember to keep your video respectful, and please try to avoid casting blame on legislators.
Most importantly, the goal of these videos is to make an abstract issue, like network adequacy, more human by offering a personal, human story about the impacts of TennCare’s failing Medicaid provider network.