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TeresaCare: Department of Wellness TeresaCare: Department of Wellness snip It is crucial in understanding Teresa Heinz Kerry and her public policy ambitions to grasp the fact that bodily health is at the very center of her thinking not only about personal physical and mental health but about human life and human behavior in general. At the root of her psychobiblical worldview is the notion that New Age Medicine and other marginal "holistic" practices will guarantee us all a utopian healthy, intelligent and moral society. New Ageisms infuse her speech and suffuse her thinking to such a degree that, as David...

<p>Tennessee cannot afford to keep the TennCare program as it now exists, according to an independent assessment released today by Gov. Phil Bredesen.</p> <p>''This has been a sobering day for me. The news is certainly not good,'' Bredesen said. ''It's very clear that TennCare is not viable in its current configuration.''</p>

TennCare's deficit could reach $259 million By The Associated Press February 5, 2003 NASHVILLE - Even if the state drains the $140 million in TennCare reserves this year, Tennessee's health care program for the poor and uninsured would still reach a deficit of $259 million, Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz said Tuesday. Goetz told the Senate Finance Committee that the state already has withheld the second quarterly payment to hospitals that treat most of TennCare's patients rather than further tap TennCare reserves. Those supplemental payments were to total $100 million over the course of the year. He said TennCare's problems result...

TennCare chief cites cost overrun of $258 million By Paula Wade wade@gomemphis.com January 16, 2003 NASHVILLE - The TennCare program is running $258 million over budget, TennCare Director Manny Martins told lawmakers Wednesday, chiefly because the state overstated the potential cost-savings of last year's TennCare reforms. Martins said that even if the state wins its federal court appeal and can continue to trim TennCare's rolls and reduce the program's health benefits as called for in Gov. Don Sundquist's reforms, state lawmakers still will have to find an estimated $258 million to balance the TennCare budget by July 1. If the...

State Investigating Local Cab Company for Possible TennCare Fraud Wednesday, a mid-state cab company is under investigation for possible TennCare fraud. The charges involved alleged over billing that could amount to tens of thousands of taxpayer money. In Nashville, Metro Health Department operators book rides to and from the doctor for TennCare patients. The operators make the arrangements with local cab companies and then bill TennCare based on the number of miles. Depending on the distance the rides can range from 55 cents to $1.55 per mile for the state. Bart Perkey oversees the program in Metro. He called the...

<p>TennCare will spend about $1.8 billion on prescription drugs this year. But, pharmacists who are suing the state and a TennCare insurance company say the money doesn't always reach the people for whom it is intended.</p> <p>Two pharmacists in tiny Gainesboro, Tenn., a town in the Upper Cumberlands east of Nashville, say they are owed a combined $156,000 by Universal Care of Tennessee. If the California-based insurance company won't pay, they say in a lawsuit, the state should be held responsible because it hired the company to help manage TennCare.</p>

Budget overrun faces TennCare despite cuts Director blames higher drug costs By Paula Wade wade@gomemphis.com August 21, 2002 NASHVILLE - TennCare is likely to overspend its $5.7 billion budget by $256 million this year, even if the state cuts 159,000 people from the program's rolls by Dec. 31 as planned, TennCare Director Manny Martins told legislators Tuesday. Martins said the cost overrun is due mainly to higher-than-expected pharmacy costs, and the fact that federal court orders have entitled TennCare recipients to name-brand drugs their doctors prescribe rather than generic equivalents. Martins said that if his estimates hold true, he will...

TennCare's chief quits with plan in jeopardy By Paula Wade wade@gomemphis.com June 12, 2002 NASHVILLE - TennCare director Mark Reynolds is stepping down, leaving the controversial health program as lawmakers debate to either fund a scaled-down version of TennCare or to abolish it and return to Medicaid. Gov. Don Sundquist's office is expected to announce today that TennCare's original architect, former state Medicaid director Manny Martins, will take over for Reynolds July 1. Martins is an assistant commissioner in the Department of Commerce and Insurance, where he is the chief regulator over TennCare's managed care organizations. Lawmakers are considering budget...

Feds sign off on overhaul of TennCare By Paula Wade wade@gomemphis.com June 1, 2002 NASHVILLE - Federal officials Friday approved a sweeping rewrite of the state's TennCare program, and now the question is whether the General Assembly will fund the reforms or strip health coverage from as many as 400,000 current TennCare enrollees. Tennessee's new 5-year TennCare waiver will split TennCare into two health plans. TennCare Medicaid will cover Medicaid-eligible enrollees with benefits similar to the existing TennCare program, but the second program, TennCare Standard, is an HMO-style program whose availability will be subject to funding by the Tennessee General...

Hit-or-myth 'fixers' set their scopes on TennCare By Paula Wade wade@gomemphis.com April 29, 2002 NASHVILLE - "Just fix TennCare" has become a popular rallying cry for the state's legislative and gubernatorial campaigns, with candidates from both parties using a blend of fact, supposition and myth about the $5.4 billion health program. TennCare, which provides health insurance for the state's poorest residents, makes an easy target for political rhetoric because of its size, complexities, management problems and the pervasive belief - disputed by the state's budget experts - that "fixing" TennCare would end the state's financial problems. "I get so tired...

Millions of TennCare dollars improperly spent The Associated Press NASHVILLE -- A new state audit finds that TennCare improperly spent millions of dollars to provide benefits to thousands of potentially ineligible enrollees, including many who don't live in the state or used post office box numbers for their addresses. The findings are likely to provide more fodder for lawmakers and gubernatorial and legislative candidates who say TennCare must be reformed before taxpayers should be asked for any more money. But TennCare officials say many of the problems found in the audit, which covered July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2001,...

Criminal probe looks at Access...MedPlus, where money went By Paula Wade wade@gomemphis.com April 8, 2002 NASHVILLE - A federal grand jury is studying the results of a months-long probe of Access. . .MedPlus, the defunct TennCare managed care organization that has been under investigation by a task force including the FBI, TBI, IRS and the Department of Justice. Investigators have interviewed state officials and former company officials regarding the firm's operations, its complex structure of related companies and the flow of hundreds of millions of state and federal tax dollars intended to provide health care for TennCare enrollees. Although Access...

Officials say TennCare not without problems, but better than Medicaid Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The state's health insurance program is bloated, bureaucratic and wasteful, said Dr. Charles W. White Sr., a family physician in West Tennessee. Yet, he doesn't pine for the past. White, a former president of the Tennessee Medical Association, believes it's important to remember the motives for creating the $5.8 billion program for 1.4 million poor and uninsured people. "The old system was a huge money losing situation," said White, who was TMA president when TennCare was developed in the early 90s. "I don't think we...