NASHVILLE, Tenn.- As TennCare announces another opportunity to get enrolled in the Standard Spend Down program, questions are being raised. The program was designed to help 7,000 people, but so far it has only helped hundreds even though the program is nearly a year old.
Jeannie Griffin is unable to stand as she fights chronic lung disease. She says she has so many medical bills, she's afraid to add it all up.
"I don't mean any harm, I just throw them away, I just throw them to the side, I don't have a choice," Jeannie told NewsChannel 5.
Jeannie plans on calling the toll free number to TennCare's hotline on September 12th. It's a way for her to apply for their Standard Spend Down program, a Medicaid program designed to help 7,000 low-income Tennesseans with mounting medical bills. But Tony Garr, with the Tennessee Health Care Campaign says it's not covering anywhere near 7,000 people. Garr's group is a sort of watchdog organization for health care issues.
He believes people are suffering, and needlessly being shut out of the program. TennCare opened up the program for enrollment last October. In one hour, they reached their 2,500 call limit, but only 504 people actually got into the program.
In February of this year, close to 3,000 applications were mailed out. Only 1,850 were returned, and 431 people made it into the program. So at this point, 935 people are in a program that can hold 7,000.
While Garr is pushing to keep enrollment open year around, TennCare officials say that's unrealistic.
"This is one of those categories that can take some time to determine your eligibility because it's not just looking at your household income, it's looking at those medical bills and making sure they fit the criteria," said Kelly Gunderson with TennCare.
Gunderson points out they have to meet federal guidelines when it comes to processing applications in a certain amount of time, so they couldn't take all of them at once. She adds, "We are going to continue to open up enrollment on this on a rolling basis, until we reach the 7,000 limit, and we have to do it in sections because it takes some time to process the applications."
Anyone who thinks he or she may be eligible, should do some research before calling on September 12th. Also, a record of medical bills over the past 90 days should be handy because the state will ask for them. The hotline number to call is 1-866-358-3230.
