Tennessee Medicaid’s Health Starts Provider Partnerships

Engaging health care providers, community-based organizations, and other state agency partners to address Medicaid members’ nonmedical risk factors is essential to delivering on TennCare’s mission of providing high-quality and cost-effective care. TennCare’s Health Starts Initiative encompasses the agency’s efforts across programs that aim to improve health outcomes by addressing members’ nonmedical risk factors. In fact, the Health Starts moniker reminds TennCare’s staff that all members’ health starts in environments where they spend most of their time outside the health care setting. These factors, such as housing, education, and transportation, are also known as social determinants of health (SDOH). Within the Health Starts Initiative are three programs: Provider Partnerships, Workforce Development Exploration, and Closed-Loop Referral System.