Organization gets grant to expand Get Covered Tennessee
Family & Children's Service is receiving $1.6 million from federal health officials to expand its statewide efforts to help people in underserved populations buy insurance on the federally run exchange.
The Nashville-based organization, which leads Get Covered Tennessee, will receive the money to bolster a campaign to reach a variety of people across the state, including African-American, disabled, Hispanic, immigrant and rural communities.
Get Covered Tennessee provided in-person enrollment assistance in all 95 counties for the first time in the 2016 enrollment period.
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Family & Children's Service will work with several organizations that work on statewide and local populations, including Tennessee Health Care Campaign, KAPA/ Project Access, Appalachian Mountain Project Access, South Memphis Alliance, Enroll America and the Tennessee Justice Center.
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Kingsport-based Wellmont Foundation is set to receive $132,000 from the grant program to connect more people to navigators in upper East Tennessee.
Open enrollment for individual health insurance plans for 2017 begins Nov. 1.
Jackie Shrago, special project coordinator with the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, who has spearheaded the Get Covered Tennessee initiative, was honored at the White House this summer for her efforts to help people navigate the Obamacare enrollment process.
Many people around the state will have only one insurer from which to buy a plan. UnitedHealthcare decided to not sell insurance in 2017. The state's insurance commissioner, Julie Mix McPeak, raised her concerns about maintaining options across the state last month when she described the exchange as "very near collapse" because of dwindling competition in many parts of the state.
Reach Holly Fletcher at 615-259-8287 and on Twitter @hollyfletcher.
UnitedHealthcare's exit to reshape Tennessee exchange in 2017
