Category: Action-alert

Sign our petition to save 45 peer service centers

1/13/2014

Please sign and pass on to others

DBSA Tennessee is determined to give voice to the great need of the most vulnerable consumers of our state. Larry Drain, Legislative Liaison for State Affairs, provides you a convient way to sign on to a petition calling on Governor to reverse direction.

Thank you,

Steve Brannon

I've started the petition "Governor Bill Haslam: Restore funding to the 45 peer support centers in Tennessee" and need your help to get it off the ground.

Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here's the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/governor-bill-haslam-restore-funding-to-the-45-peer-support-centers-in-tennessee

Here's why it's important:

The 45 peer support centers in Tennessee serve an average of 3500 a day. For literally a few dollars a day they provide a safe, positive, supporting and therapeutic environment to their members. They reduce hospitalization 93% for their members. They provide succes to many people who have never known it. For many people they are the mental health system. The 4.5 million dollars currently budgeted is a bargain financially, socially and emotionally. Please keep the peer centers in Tennessee

You can sign my petition by clicking here.

Thanks!
Larry Drain

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Severe Changes to TennCare for July 1, 2014

1/7/2014

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Below is the news release from Governor Haslam and our elected officials on cuts in services to Medicaid to be effective July 1, 2014. Tennesseans are loosing in every way as the expansion to Medicaid, with the huge funding it brings, is refused by Governor Haslam. I urge readers to use the contact information at the end of the release to inform our representatives and senators of the sufferings that will result by the implementation of Amendment 21.
Thank you, Larry, for bringing the announcement to our attention. [Larry Drain, Legislative Liaison for State Legislative Affairs, DBSA Tennessee]

Notice of Change in TennCare II Demonstration Amendment 21

The Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration is providing official notification, pursuant to 42 CFR § 447.205 and 59 Fed. Reg. 49249, of intent to file an amendment to the TennCare II Demonstration, as well as corresponding amendments to the Medicaid State Plan. The amendments will be filed with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a federal agency located in Baltimore, Maryland, with a Regional Office in The State is required to meet certain advance notice obligations whenever an amendment to the TennCare Demonstration is filed. This demonstration amendment, which will be known as “Amendment 21,” is being filed with a proposed effective date of July 1, 2014. The benefits
listed in this notice are currently supported with non-recurring funds that have been made available through a hospital assessment fee scheduled to expire on June 30, 2014. Should the fee be renewed, the changes contained in Amendment 21 will not occur.

Amendment 21 will eliminate certain currently covered services and establish benefit limits on others. Children under 21 will not be affected by these changes. Eligibility for TennCare will not be affected by these changes. Pregnant women and institutionalized persons will not be affected by proposed benefit limits; however, they will be affected by the elimination of coverage for occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy.

The specific changes to be made are as follows:
• Implementation of a combined annual limit of 8 days per person for inpatient hospital and inpatient psychiatric hospital services
• Implementation of an annual limit on non-emergency outpatient hospital occasions of 8 per person (an “occasion” is a day)
• Implementation of a combined annual limit on health care practitioners’ office visits of 8 “occasions” per person (an “occasion” is a day)
• Implementation of an annual limit on lab and X-ray services of 8 occasions per person (an “occasion” is a day)
• Elimination of coverage for occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy

It is our intention to submit this amendment to CMS with the request that it be approved in time for implementation to occur on July 1, 2014. Corresponding State Plan Amendments will be filed, where appropriate. We estimate that implementation of the amendment and corresponding State Plan changes will result in a decrease in aggregate annual expenditures of $302,722,400 in State Fiscal Year 2015.

Copies of this notice will be available at county health departments in Tennessee, and on the TennCare website located online at http://www.tn.gov/tenncare/.

Written comments may be submitted by email to [email protected] or may be mailed to Mr. Darin Gordon, Director, Bureau of TennCare, 310 Great Circle Road, Nashville, Tennessee 37243. Persons wishing to review copies of written comments received may submit their requests to the same email and/or physical address.

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Sign our petition to save 45 peer service centers

Severe Changes to TennCare for July 1, 2014

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