UCHRA Executive Director Mark Farley said the agency has been very successful in helping local impoverished families through a one-time grant three years ago.
Farley said the agency received an estimated $25 million grant in 2022 to fund a three-year initiative aimed at helping families move out of poverty. Farley said program navigators have worked with roughly 900 families across the Upper Cumberland, with participating households seeing an average income increase of about $20,000.
“We realized pretty quickly that we were moving families off of TennCare,” Farley said. “And of the 900 families worked with, we have moved 572 men, women, and children off of TennCare and into the private sector insurance.”
Farley said the program’s results recently drew attention at the state level, with UCHRA navigators testifying about the initiative’s impact before the Tennessee House of Representatives Insurance Committee. Farley said the agency’s efforts have saved the state an estimated $3.5 million a year.
“That’s a pretty impressive number when you look at TennCare,” Farley said. “So much so that we’ve had TennCare reaching out to us, and I think they want to have further discussions on how our program is affecting their participants and how we are able to move them off and see if there are some ways they can capture that.”
The grant enhances the lives of recipients through providing temporary cash aid, child care, transportation, and job training. Farley said the families the agency has helped are all working families.
“They are all working, and a lot of them are working multiple jobs,” Farley said. “They just don’t know how to move up that economic ladder, and with a little help and some assistance, they are able to do that. So I am very proud of that.”
Farley said helping that many families get off TennCare through the grant program is a positive accident.