February 18, 2005

TennCare Can't Access Basic Usage Data

Here's an update on the lawsuit the Tennessean filed to force the Bredesen administration to release certain records related to TennCare. Apparently the Bredesen administration isn't stonewalling. The problem is actually much worse than that - TennCare simply doesn't have the data that it ought to have. What The Tennessean is asking for is simple data showing how many prescriptions its members are using, how much money TennCare spends on patients by the categories listed on the TennCare Web page, and the number of enrollees in each category.

''The problem here is that The Tennessean has asked for records that simply don't exist,'' TennCare lawyer Janet Kleinfelter told the court.

That it will cost TennCare $75,000 to write a computer program to dig out the data speaks with a megaphone about the sorry state of management at TennCare - and gives you a good insight into why the program is so troubled. TennCare is in exactly one business - paying for prescriptions and medical care for its beneficiaries. TennCare not having that kind of data readily available at the push of a button on a computer is the same as a Burger King not knowing how many burgers it sold.

Gov. Bredesen, it's time to pull the plug on TennCare, and replace it with a program that works at a cost Tennessee taxpayers can afford. You have the power, governor, to do that. TennCare was created by executive order. It can be canceled the same way. Just issue an executive order canceling TennCare at the end of this fiscal year (June 30) and a second executive order launching a better-designed replacement on July - a replacement that will not be governed by the myriad of court orders and onerous consent agreements under which TennCare and efforts to reform it must labor.

You have the power, Gov. Bredesen. Whether you have the courage is another question.