Tennessee

Cover Tennessee

The Cover Tennessee Initiative was featured in the April 18 Wall Street Journal (front page)

• Follow this link to the article (subscription required)

Quoted from the article:

[People] in the program only get coverage up to $25,000 for health expenses annually, and only $15,000 of that can go to hospital bills. If she becomes seriously ill or has a major accident, [they will] be just as vulnerable as [they were] before. [They will] have to either pay the bills herself or ask the hospital for charity care.

The limits put Tennessee in sharp contrast with Massachusetts and California, two other states that are part of the U.S. trend toward reconsidering universal coverage. Plans in the two states envision people paying more of their own medical bills at first, in exchange for protection against catastrophic costs.

In an interview, Gov. Bredesen says he listened to focus groups and queried blue-collar folks, such as a waitress at a waffle restaurant, to devise his plan. "They weren't interested in buying insurance for catastrophic events. They wanted access to the emergency room next month, access to the pharmacy next month," he says. "Let's give people what they want instead of what some advocate says they want."

The governor says the working poor can't afford $2,000 deductibles, and he questions whether Massachusetts and California can pay for their more-ambitious plans.

Health Information Tennessee

The Tennessee Department of Health has a comprehensive web site from which to access their data sources.

• Follow this link to the Health Information Tennessee Web site

Legal and Regulatory

• follow this link for the HealthPrivacy.org TN legal summary (2002)
• Tennessee Title 63: Professions and the Healing Arts
• Tennessee Title 68: Health, Safety, and Environment

Public Health

• Follow this link to reportable diseases
• Follow this link for a 2004 report on HIV/AIDS
• Follow this link for a state 2004 report on HIV/AIDS

Quality

Follow this link for the AHRQ National Healthcare Quality Report for TN

Medicaid


eHealth Council

On June 1, Governor Phil Bredesen appointed members to the eHealth Advisory Council chartered through Executive Order 35.

• Follow this link for the press release
• Follow this link for the press release concerning the Executive Order

Quoting from the press release:

"By design, the Council includes sixteen members representing Tennessee’s provider community, employers, regional health care information organizations, payers and consumers. The executive order calls for this Council to create a plan to promote the use of electronic medical records by health care stakeholders across Tennessee and to identify obstacles to the implementation of effective health information infrastructure. The Council will be called upon to advise state government on how to more effectively promote the successful adoption of EMRs. One of the Governor’s primary goals for this Council is to offer constructive paths to minimize and eliminate duplicative efforts while leveraging innovation."


Members are:

• Antoine Agassi, Nashville
  State of Tennessee
  Chairman of the Governor’s eHealth Advisory Council
  
• Peter Dudley Greaves, Lebanon
  HCA Healthcare, Senior Enterprise Architect
  
• Denise D. Wood, Collierville
  FedEx Corporation, Corporate Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer
  
• David H. Sensibaugh, Kingsport
  Eastman Chemical Company, Director of Integrated Health
  
• Marlin Clifford Chapman, Smyrna
  Nissan North America, Director of Human Resources, Compensation and Benefits
  
• Linda Eskind Rebrovick, Nashville
  Dell, Vice President Health Care
  
• Dr. William R. Stead, Nashville
  Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs & Chief Information Officer
  
• David C. Guth, Nashville
  Centerstone, Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder
  
• Dr. David R. Reagan, Mountain Home
  Carespark RHIO, Chairman of the Board
  James H. Quillen VA Medical Center, Chief of Staff
  
• Alan Leon Hill, Knoxville
  Innovation Valley Health Information Network
  Executive Director ClearPath Group
  
• Robert Steven Gordon, Collierville
  Mid-South eHealth Alliance, Former Chairman of the Board
  Baptist Memorial Health Care, Executive Vice President & Chief Administrative Officer
  
• Jana Lynn Skewes, Signal Mountain
  Shared Health, President & CEO
  
• Bradley Steven Karro, Nashville
  Caremark Rx, Inc., Executive Vice President
  
• Vicky Gregg, Chattanooga
  BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, President & CEO
  
• Dr. Winnie Ruth Toler, Franklin
  State of Tennessee, Bureau of TennCare, Chief Network Officer
  
• Dr. Andrea D. Gelzer, Hartford, CT
  CIGNA HealthCare, Senior Vice President Clinical Public Affairs
  
• Elisa D. Parker, Franklin
  Pilkenton Real Estate Co., Affiliated Real Estate Broker