Tennessee Eliminates Depression & Anxiety From TennCare ‘Episode Of Care’ Program

On May 21, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed legislation that modified the state’s “episodes of care” bundles to exclude non-emergent depression and anxiety from the Division of TennCare's Medicaid payment reform initiative. The text of Tennessee House Bill 1541/Senate Bill 2364 excludes anxiety and non-emergent depression episodes from any future Medicaid payment reform initiative.

TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program, launched the all-payer episodes of care model in May 2014. The original plans called for a total of 75 episodes of care to be added in 11 distinct waves by 2019. Among the 75 . . .