[Source: Health and Life Sciences Law Daily, October 9, 2007]
The AP (10/9) reports, "The federal government has approved a three-year TennCare waiver extension that will leave the state with about $270 million less than needed to cover growing hospital costs, state officials announced today." However, the CMS-approved agreement "is an improvement over an original proposal that would have left Tennessee with more than $385 million less than projected."
Modern Healthcare (10/9, Galloro) notes, "The new agreement sets an annual cap of $540 million, or $1.62 billion over the three years of the waiver, on payments that TennCare can make to hospitals to offset the costs of treating uninsured patients not covered by TennCare."
The Chattanooga Times Free Press (10/9, Bregel) adds, "Although the TennCare Bureau submitted its request to renew the waiver in 2006 -- a year in advance of the waiver's originally expiration date of June 30, 2007 -- negotiations fell apart when the CMS added a provision to cap the amount of money TennCare could provide to hospitals as reimbursement for uncompensated care, TennCare Bureau officials have said."
Read the press release posted on TennCare’s website.
