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TennCare officials highlight Healthy Starts pilot, waiting-list reductions and Katie Beckett growth
Summary
TennCare's Victor Wu described the Healthy Starts pilot connecting members to social supports and a closed-loop referral system. Director Smith said shared-savings dollars helped remove around 4,500 people from developmental-disability waiting lists and that the Katie Beckett program now serves nearly 5,000 children.
Victor Wu, TennCare chief medical officer, summarized the Healthy Starts pilot as an effort to tackle social drivers of health by linking members to transportation, food, job training and community resources, using community health workers and a closed-loop referral platform called Tennessee Community Compass to capture data for evaluation. "A lot of the drivers of health outcomes are things that occur outside of the doctor's office," Wu said, noting the pilot is designed so many provider partnerships can continue the work without ongoing state grant funding.
Director Steven Smith described waiting-list progress for long‑term services: Tennessee removed about 2,500 people from the ECF choices list earlier and another 2,000 using shared-savings funds, and said the Katie Beckett program now enrolls "nearly 5,000" children who need complex services. Smith emphasized that some expansions were funded as recurring appropriations and others were spread across fiscal years to avoid a fiscal cliff.
