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Committee sends 'Emma's Bill' to finance after emotional testimony on TennCare nursing rules
Summary
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to send Senate Bill 650 — known as "Emma's Bill" — to the finance committee after parents of a young woman affected by TennCare rules testified and TennCare officials described fiscal and program constraints tied to a 12-hour ventilator threshold.
Senate Health and Welfare members voted to send Senate Bill 650, known in testimony as "Emma's Bill," to the Finance Committee after hearing emotional testimony from the patient's parents and a detailed explanation of current TennCare policy from agency officials.
The bill would require the TennCare Bureau to consider a patient's overall welfare — rather than treat the cost-of-alternative as a determinative prong — when reviewing coverage for private duty nursing and related supports. Sponsor Chairman Ferrell Crowe said the bill is intended to preserve coverage for people like Emma, a college freshman who suffered severe brain injury and later improved but no longer met the program's ventilator-time threshold that triggered eligibility for round-the-clock nursing.
Emma's father, Mark Harrod, and her mother, Jody…
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