Officials say 2,000 appeals remain for TennCare
About 3,300 hearings had been held as of Nov. 21, said Michelle Mowery Johnson, DHS spokeswoman.
The department is responsible for handling appeals from the 191,000 people removed earlier this year from TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program for the poor and disabled. Its hiring of 120 temporary lawyers to handle the appeals has been criticized by TennCare advocates and some lawmakers.
Tennessee Justice Center attorney Michele Johnson said Thursday that hearings officers with the secretary of state could have handled the TennCare appeals process at no additional cost. But TennCare officials wanted to control the outcome of the hearings, she said.
“The process has been unbelievably unfair. The hearing process has resulted in desperately sick and legally eligible Tennesseans losing their hearings and their dignity,” the lawyer said.
DHS Commissioner Gina Lodge disagreed, saying, “There’s not a lot that I’d redesign.”
“Although we have a good system for 98, 99 percent of the appellants, through human error we’re going to miss something along the way,” Lodge said. “That is something that keeps us up at night, which is one of the reasons we put in as many checks as we have.”
DHS officials said the department has spent about $10.5 million on all hearing expenses while the original budget allocated more than $37 million on processing appeals.
State Rep. Chris Clem, a Republican from Lookout Mountain, said Thursday that the appeals process was mismanaged and hiring temporary hearing officers could have been avoided.
He said the state could have used the processes it had in place for social services appeals and attorneys with the attorney general’s office or other state agencies.