Tennessee
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Maternal and Infant Health in State Rural Health Transformation Proposals Set Promising Priorities in an Uncertain Landscape
All 50 states applied for CMS’ Rural Health Transformation (RHT) program, a $50 billion fund borne from a need to reassure members of Congress during the final debate over H.R. 1 that Medicaid cuts would not decimate their states’ rural health systems. As previous blogs have detailed, the RHT program presents a unique opportunity for…
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Community Health Workers are a Focus of Rural Health Transformation Applications
Awards for the Rural Health Transformation (RHT) program were released on December 29, 2025, and state applications with proposals for the funds have been made public, covering a range of activities aiming to increase access to care, develop infrastructure, and enhance workforces. As we’ve written about previously, community health workers (CHWs) are a critical workforce…
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State by State Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Data
This tracker shows enrollment data for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in all 50 states and DC, from January 2025 to the most recent month available. Data include total Medicaid/CHIP enrollment, as well as enrollment for children, adults, and Medicaid expansion. Historical data are also included to provide additional context for state…
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The Tennessee “Shared Savings” Waiver: Not a Medicaid Block Grant
As our colleague Edwin Park has explained, there is keen interest on the part of some Congressional Republican leaders in capping federal Medicaid payments to states, ideally by converting Medicaid from a health insurance program into a block grant. Currently, the federal government matches state spending for the costs of health and long-term care services…
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Medicaid’s Role in Small Towns and Rural Areas
Key Findings Background One-fifth of people in the United States live in areas that are classified as non-urban. Residents of rural areas and small towns face additional challenges accessing needed health services compared to residents of metro areas for a variety of reasons including acute provider shortages, limited connectivity, and long distances to travel to…
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Federal Judge in Tennessee Sides with Individuals Terminated from Medicaid, Finds Numerous Violations in Tennessee Medicaid Eligibility Process
“Poor, disabled, and otherwise disadvantaged Tennesseans should not require luck, perseverance, or zealous lawyering to receive healthcare benefits they are entitled to under the law.” How’s that for an opening sentence to a judicial opinion? That’s how an August 26, 2024, decision in a class action case called A.M.C. v. Stephen Smith started – and…
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Tennessee to Begin Providing Diapers for Children Under Age 2 in Medicaid
Following CMS approval of its 1115 demonstration amendment earlier this year, Tennessee is set to begin covering diapers as a Medicaid benefit on August 7th. All children under age two enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP (known as TennCare and CoverKids, respectively) will be eligible to receive up to 100 diapers per month as a covered…
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Delaware and Tennessee Become First States to Cover Diapers for Young Children in Medicaid through Section 1115 Demonstrations
Last week, CMS announced the approval of section 1115 demonstration project requests from Delaware and Tennessee to provide diapers to young children covered by Medicaid. These approvals mark the first time a state has been authorized to cover diapers for infants in Medicaid regardless of medical necessity due to incontinence issues. Under federal statute, section…
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Medicaid Managed Care, Maternal Mortality Review Committees, and Maternal Health: A 12-State Scan
Download the Full Report Introduction The United States is in the midst of an ongoing maternal mortality crisis and Medicaid, the health insurer for low-income Americans, has an important role to play in addressing it. Medicaid is the nation’s single largest maternity care insurer, paying for more than 40% of all births on average across all states,…
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State Medicaid and CHIP Snapshots, 2023
The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) created factsheets underscoring the importance of Medicaid in providing coverage for children in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Sources available here. Previous snapshots can be found here (2019), here (2018) and here (2017). Check out more interactive…
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The Biden Administration CMS Unwinds the Tennessee “Block Grant”
Two and a half years ago, on January 8, 2021, with considerable fanfare, the Trump administration CMS announced the approval of a Medicaid “aggregate cap waiver” for Tennessee. The Governor was more forthcoming, trumpeting the state’s receipt of a “block grant waiver.” You say “aggregate cap,” I say “block grant,” let’s call the whole thing…
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Comments on Tennessee’s Proposed “Amendment 4” to TennCare III Demonstration
The following organizations joined Georgetown University Center for Children and Families in submitting comments to HHS regarding Tennessee’s proposed “Amendment 4” to its TennCare III Demonstration. ACNM Tennessee Affiliate American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) American Lung Association Autistic Self Advocacy Network Center for Law and Social Policy Center on Budget and Policy Priorities…
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Waiver Update: CMS May Have Found a Path Forward in Tennessee
The Biden CMS inherited a real waiver mess in Tennessee, but CMS may have found a path forward. CMS has asked the state to amend the most problematic parts of its section 1115 demonstration known as TennCare III, so that the TennCare program can continue. Just as importantly, to its credit (and unlike some other…
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Medicaid Wars: The Unwinding (and Litigation) Continues (Episode IV)
It’s been seven months and change since the Biden Administration took office. What it found waiting for it on January 20 was not just a crisis of democracy and a global pandemic and a surge of unaccompanied children at the border, but also a large pile of policy intended to undercut the Administration’s ability to…
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Federal Government Accepting Public Comments on Tennessee Medicaid Block Grant Waiver Restricting Access to Prescription Drugs
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have reopened a 30-day public comment period for Tennessee’s controversial section 1115 waiver, which the Trump Administration approved in January 2021. While the waiver’s radical centerpiece converting the state’s federal Medicaid funding into a block grant has rightfully received the most attention, the waiver would also allow…
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Low-Wage Uninsured Workers: State Profiles
The recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) includes new large financial incentives for states to extend health insurance coverage to low-wage workers and other adults earning less than $17,775 a year. These incentives apply to regular spending in a state’s Medicaid program and offer a five-percentage point across the board increase in…
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A Profile of Tennessee’s Low-Wage Uninsured Workers
The recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) includes new large financial incentives for states to extend health insurance coverage to low-wage workers and other adults earning less than $17,775 a year.¹ These incentives apply to regular spending in a state’s Medicaid program and offer a five-percentage point across the board increase in the…
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The Tennessee Waiver: Block Grant, Aggregate Cap, or Windfall?
In their wondrous 1957 interpretation of a Gershwin classic, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong sing, “You like potato and I like potahto/You like tomato and I like tomahto.” Their back-and-forth has echoes in the current debate over what to call the TennCare III demonstration, approved on January 8 by the former CMS Administrator, Seema Verma.…
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Press Release – New Data Finds Number of Uninsured Children Increasing at Alarming Rate
Tennessee Justice Center By: Kinika Young An estimated 80,000 Tennessee children were uninsured last year, a number that has increased about 38% since 2016, according to a new report released by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. Tennessee’s experience is part of a national trend that left an estimated 726,000 more children without health coverage…
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State Leaders Advance Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Policy, Part 2
Four years after launching ZERO TO THREE’s Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Financing Policy Project (IECMH-FPP), we have learned a lot about opportunities to advance infant and early childhood mental health policies, even amidst a tough political climate and funding limitations. In an effort to highlight the remarkable accomplishments of IECMH-FPP states, we recently…
