Health Care Safety Net in FY 24-25

  
Community health centers rely on the Health Care Safety Net funding to care for uninsured adults. Learn more about the fund in this year’s budget: 
 
Health Care Safety Net 
An estimated 10.4% of adult Tennesseans are uninsured.1  The Health Care Safety Net, administered through the Tennessee Department of Health, partially offsets the cost of providing care for these patients through community health centers and charitable and faith-based clinics. The majority of the fund, 82.5% is allocated to Primary Care Plus, the portion of the funding that supports primary, dental, and behavioral health services.2 The remaining funding is allocated to Project Access, a program that coordinates access to specialty care services in urban areas across the state.3
 
Community Health Centers in the Health Care Safety Net 
In 2022, Tennessee’s health centers served more than 423,000 patients.4 On average, 29.4% of health center patients are uninsured, although this is as high as 65.4% in some centers.5 According to the Tennessee Department of Health, in FY23, community health centers provided 183,961 visits for uninsured adults and cared for 106,182 Tennesseans.6
 
Health Care Safety Net Funding for FY24-25 
Last year, the budget passed by the Tennessee General Assembly included an additional $7M in recurring funding for the Health Care Safety Net. The additional $7M in funding brought total Safety Net Funding to slightly more than $31M, the highest amount ever allocated to the fund.  
 
The State’s budget outlook is much different this year than past several years in which the state was receiving federal COVID-19 pandemic funding and higher than usual tax revenues. According to the Sycamore Institute, the state’s revenue projections fell $333M short in FY23, and the governor’s proposed budget anticipated $719M less in revenue than expected for FY24.7 
 
Last fall, the Tennessee Department of Health proposed an additional $5M in recurring funding for the Health Care Safety Net but Governor Lee did not include any additional Safety Net funding in his proposed budget when it was released in February. Following release of the governor’s budget, TPCA advocated for a budget amendment for $5M in Safety Net funding. In this tighter than usual budget environment, the General Assembly did include an additional $250,000 in non-recurring funding for the Health Care Safety Net.  
 
Robust funding for the Health Care Safety Net fund ensures community health centers and charitable and faith-based clinics can provide care for the most vulnerable and underserved Tennesseans. The Health Care Safety Net is more critical than ever as providers contend with inflation and an increase in uninsured patients as TennCare completes the redetermination process. 
 
 
  1.  Uninsured Adult Health Care Safety Net 2023 Annual Report. (2023). Tennessee Department of Health. Available at https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/health/division-of-health-disparities/Safety%20Net%20Annual%20Report%202023_FINAL.pdf.
  2.  Ibid. 
  3.  Ibid. 
  4.  Tennessee Health Center Program Uniform Data System (UDS) Data. (2023). HRSA. data.HRSA.gov. Available at https://data.hrsa.gov/tools/data-reporting/program-data/state/TN.
  5.  Ibid. 
  6.  Uninsured Adult Health Care Safety Net 2023 Annual Report. (2023). Tennessee Department of Health. Available at https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/health/division-of-health-disparities/Safety%20Net%20Annual%20Report%202023_FINAL.pdf.
  7.  Spears, M. The Budget in Brief: Summary of Gov. Lees FY2025 Recommended Budget. (2024). The Sycamore Institute. Available at https://www.sycamoreinstitutetn.org/2025-lee-budget/.

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