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Cohen: CMS Extends TennCare II Section 1115 Through 2021

December 16, 2016

Will help hospitals treat Medicaid patients

[MEMPHIS, TN] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) has extended the TennCare II section 1115 demonstration through June 30, 2021. TennCare is the state's managed-care Medicaid system and is authorized under a section 1115 waiver. Section 1115 waivers allow certain pieces of the Medicaid program to be waived in order to give states additional flexibility to design and improve their state-run Medicaid programs. In May, Congressman Cohen wrote a letter to Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell urging CMS to renew Tennessee's 1115 Medicaid waiver before it expired on June 30, 2016. Additionally, Congressman Cohen urged the waiver to continue funding the uncompensated hospital care payments. These payments help hospitals cover the costs they face when they provide care for the uninsured and underinsured. You can read Congressman Cohen letter here. CMS temporarily extended the deadline a number of times over the last six months, before announcing the five-year extension this afternoon.

"I am pleased that CMS has extended TennCare's section 1115 demonstration for the next 5 years, including the continuation of the state's uncompensated hospital care payments," said Congressman Cohen. "This continued funding from CMS is critical to the success of hospitals in Memphis who rely on these payments to cover unreimbursed costs. I was proud to write a letter to Secretary Burwell in support of the extension of TennCare Section 1115. TennCare helps 1.5 million mostly low-income pregnant women, children and individuals who are elderly or have a disability in Tennessee."

Additionally, Congressman Cohen led the bipartisan efforts of the Tennessee delegation in 2015 to the U.S. House to get a provision added to the Medicare Access and Children's Health Insurance Program ("CHIP") Reauthorization Act (H.R. 2) before it became law to guarantee $530 million over the next 10 years in disproportionate share hospital (DSH) allotments to help Tennessee's hospitals and community health centers recoup expenses incurred caring for those who cannot afford to pay. Tennessee is the only state in the nation that does not receive these DSH allotments automatically.