Closing arguments presented on TennCare cuts
NASHVILLE — The lawyer for an advocacy group representing TennCare enrollees did not present any evidence of mismanagement in the state’s troubled health care program, lawyers for the state and another group said Thursday in closing arguments in U.S. District Court.
Nashville attorney George Barrett, allowed to intervene in the case a few months ago to help mediate a solution, said Tennessee Justice Center director Gordon Bonnyman offered no proof that the state has not exhausted every option to avoid cutting enrollees from the state’s $8 billion expanded Medicaid program for 1.3 million people.
“I hope this doesn’t mean we’ve wasted seven days (of testimony),” he said. When Bonnyman cut off negotiations in December, Barrett said, “we’ve been going downhill ever since.”
“What we have learned in this process is every month’s delay increases the number of disenrollees,” Barrett told U.S. District Judge William Haynes in his closing argument.
Haynes didn’t say when he might rule on the request from lawyers for TennCare enrollees to prevent the state from implementing the cuts.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals meets in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday to hear arguments on whether Haynes has the authority to halt the governor’s plan.
Bonnyman used a 50-slide presentation highlighting his allegations of mismanagement by the state in an effort to improperly eliminate 323,000 adult enrollees Gov. Phil Bredesen is attempting to cut from the program to stabilize costs. Bonnyman said the cuts would hurt the most vulnerable, including the mentally ill.
“The state is uniquely vulnerable to the types of cuts being proposed,” he said. “These cuts are not suitable.”
Bonnyman said the state has never taken steps to enact previously approved reforms. He also contended the state was front-loading cuts.
“The state is over-cutting the rolls in 2005 so it won’t have to do so in 2006,” he said.
Bredesen spokeswoman Lydia Lenker said Thursday that the state has the legal authority to restructure the TennCare program.
“Gordon Bonnyman has spent a week trying to obscure the fact that TennCare is bankrupting the state of Tennessee, but no amount of allegations and finger pointing can cover the $650 million budget hole TennCare is creating,” she said. “TennCare’s problems were a decade in the making.”
Barrett echoed that sentiment in closing arguments.
“Tennessee is about to experience a great disaster if TennCare collapses,” he said. “It’s been on life support since its inception and the oxygen is about to be cut off.”
The only witness testimony Thursday was from Patti Killingsworth, TennCare’s policy director. She said the state can produce eligibility forms and notices quickly because the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services already has given its approval to cut enrollment.
Much of the testimony dealt with the language of the forms that would be sent to TennCare enrollees to determine whether they will remain eligible for coverage. Killingsworth said the forms were written on a sixth grade level and that enrollees would have time to file them with the state.
“We are giving enrollees the benefit of the doubt,” Killingsworth said.
The state will give enrollees 30 days to respond and another 10 days if their returned forms omit any information, she said.