2022 Annual Report
MESSAGE FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dear Friends,
2022 was a year of renewal at TJC. While the pandemic was far from over, it no longer kept us isolated from each other, our clients and our partners. Being together as a team meant that our halls rang with laughter and buzzed with innovative solutions again. We were able to find our groove together, have hard conversations then go for a walk and get a brownie. Our work is so high stakes, and there is no teacher’s edition, which made the separation imposed by the pandemic difficult to bear. Being together again, even in makeshift temporary offices, renews our energy and makes the work downright joyful.
2022 was also when important work which begun in the isolation of the pandemic came to fruition. Most strikingly, this included a major victory in the lawsuit brought by Brandi and Jody McCutchen and other inspiring clients. As described elsewhere in this report, they won reversal of a Trump Administration decision that threatened health coverage not just for 1.7 million Tennesseans but for Medicaid patients nationwide.
We also won court approval to move forward in another lawsuit challenging the state’s lack of safeguards to protect the coverage of TennCare enrollees during the annual review of their eligibility. With pandemic delays now behind us, we are working hard with generous co-counsel from New York and North Carolina to prepare for a November trial in the case. The timing is crucial, as over the next year every state will review the eligibility of everyone enrolled in Medicaid. National experts fear that millions of Americans will lose coverage during the process. They cite the example of Tennessee where, when TennCare last undertook a similar effort, hundreds of thousands of children lost coverage because of paperwork burdens and bureaucratic glitches. Determined to prevent that from happening again, we are asking the court to order TennCare to strengthen its appeal system and the resources needed to enable people with disabilities to safely navigate the complicated eligibility process.
The lawsuit is just one part of TJC’s “all hands-on deck” commitment to maintaining health coverage for Tennessee families most at risk. Building on virtual partner networks developed during the pandemic, we are rallying a statewide effort by nonprofits and health care providers to help families maintain their coverage. We are grateful that TJC’s leadership has been recognized by a 3-year federal grant to support our campaign to maintain children’s coverage.
The ability to again host in-person meetings energized our nutrition advocacy. The nutrition team was able to host a day-long anti-hunger conference and fire up a crowd of partners and friends to ensure that no Tennesseans have to choose between food and medicine. The team mobilized partners to tackle systemic barriers to adequate nutrition by addressing, for example, arcane policies that impair the ability of SNAP to reach homeless or elderly Tennesseans.
We also hosted our Hall of Fame Gala at Nashville’s gorgeous National Museum of African American Music celebrating the visionaries who make our work possible and drawing strength from the folks who traveled from near and far to break bread with us. TJCers were once again able to attend, and contribute to, national conferences. That included the selection of Signe Anderson, our nutrition advocacy director, and a TJC client from Memphis, to represent Tennessee at the first White House anti-hunger summit in 50 years.
Finally, work on our new offices advanced by leaps and bounds in 2022 and put occupancy within sight later this spring. Most importantly, the easing of pandemic restriction facilitated the direct contacts so important to developing strong relationships with our new neighbors. None of the powerful work we did in 2022 could have happened without your support and kindness. Thanks so much for making it possible.
We have been in this work since 1996, standing alongside Tennessee families and helping them gain access to the programs and benefits necessary for them to live. After Congress placed restrictions on legal services programs, effectively creating a two-tier justice system, community and bar leaders from all parts of the state and across the political spectrum established TJC to provide legal representation to Tennesseans who fall in the gap.
TJC helps families from Memphis to Mountain City cut through the red tape and legal barriers that often deny them vital services like healthcare and nutrition. Using what we learn from individual cases, TJC pursues systemic reforms that benefit all Tennesseans. We advocate for public policies that will make Tennessee a more just, compassionate, and inclusive state for all.
TJC uses legal tools to improve the lives of millions of Tennesseans and hold government accountable. Some of our successes include:
- Finalized and tested new court forms for use in General Sessions Courts, which hear eviction and debt collection cases in Tennessee. When approved by the Tennessee Supreme Court, the forms will inform people of their rights and responsibilities in plain English, replacing arcane language dating from before the Civil War. This is an important milestone for our General Sessions GPS project, whose goal is to make the court process more understandable for the 90% of civil defendants who have no lawyer, so that they can know and protect their legal rights.
- Won TennCare coverage for a 49-year-old father and family breadwinner, so that he could obtain the lung transplant that saved his life and enabled him to return to work.
- Continued to engage a widening group of health policy experts and researchers, as well as senior federal health officials, to support TJC’s proposal to revise uniform billing forms to collect race and ethnicity data. If adopted, the proposal would fill a major gap in the nation’s capacity to use data to understand and address racial disparities in health and access to care.
- When a Memphis nursing home administrator tried to put a resident out on the curb for complaining about filthy, dangerous conditions, TJC succeeded in getting the resident safely transferred to a new facility. TJC then triggered an investigation that resulted in the firing and discipline of the administrator, an inspection of the facility and the establishment of a comprehensive corrective action plan to protect the facility’s remaining residents.
TJC believes that diversity, equity, and inclusion are vital to our mission of ensuring justice for all. We recognize that racism is foundational to the social and economic disparities that plague our nation. We work to achieve opportunity, security, and dignity for all Tennesseans. We tackle barriers to inclusion by humbly focusing on what’s broken both inside and outside of TJC.
POLICY ADVOCACY
CAREGIVER SHORTAGE
TJC continued to address the caregiver shortage, which was deepened by the pandemic, through litigation and policy advocacy. In December 2022, TJC successfully settled a lawsuit brought on behalf of eight families from across the state. Their loved ones with severe medical needs had been approved for in-home care, but TennCare failed to provide the care. The litigation helped those families and revealed flaws in the state’s response to the crisis. TJC is using that information as it works with partner organizations for policy reforms that will improve the quality and availability of caregiving in both home and institutional settings.
MEDICAL DEBT
TJC filed suit on behalf of two former hospital patients to enforce a federal Medicaid law designed to protect Medicaid patients from catastrophic medical debt. The law requires the state to cover the entirety of an extended hospital stay, but TennCare covers only part of the patient’s hospitalization, leaving the patient’s family to face medical bankruptcy. Court rulings in the two cases are expected in 2023. If successful, the cases will avert ruinous medical debt for an estimated 2,000 families each year.
TENNCARE “BLOCK GRANT”
In 2020, the Trump Administration approved an unprecedented plan by Tennessee officials to radically alter the TennCare program. The plan, referred to by state and federal officials as a Medicaid “block grant,” included a drastic reduction in prescription drug coverage and incentives for the state to divert federal Medicaid funds from health care to other areas of the state budget. As described on the next page, the McCutchen lawsuit brought by TJC and the National Health Law Program prompted withdrawal of the prescription drug provisions in what national experts hailed as an important win for Medicaid patients everywhere. TJC continues to pursue the case to obtain other needed changes to the plan.
PROTECTING HEALTH COVERAGE
In August 2022, the federal court certified a plaintiff class in A.M.C. v. Smith. The case, which goes to trial in November, seeks reforms of TennCare’s appeal procedures and enhanced protections to enable individuals with disabilities to navigate TennCare’s notoriously complex eligibility process. TennCare will reassess the eligibility of over 1.7 million children and adults over the next year, and the lawsuit is part of TJC’s broad effort to prevent hundreds of thousands of defective terminations, as has occurred in the past.
NUTRITION POLICY
With the Pandemic-EBT program coming to an end as the Federal Public Health Emergency expires, TJC was eager to see the summer EBT benefit continued into a permanent program. Summer months are among the highest rates of food insecurity for children because they lose access to free meals at school; Summer-EBT helps close this gap by giving families money to buy groceries. TJC’s nutrition team has persistently advocated alongside state and national partners for Summer-EBT, and as a result of this effort it will begin as a permanent program in summer of 2023!
ADVOCACY FOR TENNESSEE
When systemic problems impact lots of people, TJC steps in to find out why they are happening and what can be done to correct them. We address these issues through the court system. We partner with community organizations to educate and inform lawmakers and members of the public, and we equip Tennesseans with the tools needed to make their voices heard.
- 46 systemic issues identified and addressed by working individual cases and in collaboration with partner organizations
- 4,290 new individuals added to TJCs network of advocates informed about TJC issue areas
- 11,950 individuals engaged in meaningful action (attended trainings, called representatives, wrote letters, volunteered, etc.)
- 769 new partners added throughout the state, focusing on groups led by and serving Communities of Color
- 795 partners actively engaged throughout the state
- 2,031 volunteer hours leveraged
LEGAL VICTORIES
- Finalized and tested new court forms for use in General Sessions Courts, which hear eviction and debt collection cases in Tennessee. When approved by the Tennessee Supreme Court, the forms will inform people of their rights and responsibilities in plain English, replacing arcane language dating from before the Civil War. This is an important milestone for our General Sessions GPS project, whose goal is to make the court process more understandable for the 90% of civil defendants who have no lawyer, so that they can know and protect their legal rights.
- Won TennCare coverage for a 49-year-old father and family breadwinner, so that he could obtain the lung transplant that saved his life and enabled him to return to work.
- Continued to engage a widening group of health policy experts and researchers, as well as senior federal health officials, to support TJC’s proposal to revise uniform billing forms to collect race and ethnicity data. If adopted, the proposal would fill a major gap in the nation’s capacity to use data to understand and address racial disparities in health and access to care.
- When a Memphis nursing home administrator tried to put a resident out on the curb for complaining about filthy, dangerous conditions, TJC succeeded in getting the resident safely transferred to a new facility. TJC then triggered an investigation that resulted in the firing and discipline of the administrator, an inspection of the facility and the establishment of a comprehensive corrective action plan to protect the facility’s remaining residents.
- TJC worked with both DHS and partners across the state to help people who had drug felony convictions but were denied SNAP because of issues with paperwork, even though they were eligible for benefits. We continue to work on wwcases with individuals and families impacted by this bad rule and are ultimately working to find ways to remove the policy entirely.
CHAMPIONS FOR FAMILIES
Brandi & Jody McCutchen have been devoted caregivers and advocates for their 22-old son, Brylee, his whole life. Born with severe cerebral palsy, Brylee requires skilled nursing care, including 24/7 bedside monitoring of his ventilator tracheostomy and feeding tube to maintain his airway.
His medications cost more than $5,000 a month. The family’s devotion, supported by TennCare nursing services, has enabled Brylee to remain at home and avoid the much higher costs that TennCare would incur if he were placed in an institution. Brandi and Jody have had to repeatedly appeal TennCare’s denials of care prescribed by Brylee’s doctors.
They immediately recognized the threat posed by the Trump Administration’s approval of a plan that would incentivize TennCare to eliminate expensive medications and divert federal Medicaid funds to other parts of the state budget. The family joined other parents in a lawsuit, McCutchen v. Becerra, brought by TJC and the National Health Law Program challenging the plan as unlawful. The lawsuit prompted the withdrawal of the plan in August 2022, removing a dangerous precedent that, experts warned, posed a threat to Medicaid throughout the country.
SERVING TENNESSEANS
SUPPORTING TJC
Raising the Bar Donors
The Raising the Bar Campaign provides essential funding for TJC’s work which ensures we can continue advocating for Tennesseans when the basic necessities of life are at stake. These generous members of the private bar have been some of our most stalwart supporters and partners for over twenty years. This support enables TJC to take on exclusively non-paying cases.Click for more info and a list of member organizations.
Our Board
The TJC board consists of leaders from throughout the state who generously give their time, expertise, and support. Without this essential leadership, we would not be able to do the work that we do.Click below for a list of our board members.
The Iris Society
TJC receives no government funds and relies on private foundations and generous donors to make our work possible. Donors and corporations contributed $911,692 to the work in 2020. Gifts came from 995 households, of which 299 are new donors and 85 are recurring donors. The Iris Society honors donors who contribute $1,000 or more within the calendar year or include TJC in their estate plans.Click below for a list of our members.
FINANCIAL INFORMATION
Total income: $2,691,078
Contributions 32%
Foundations/Grants 67%
Total expense: $2,616,767
Personnel 75%
Occupancy 9%
Office 5%
Contracts 8%
Fundraising (Non-personnel) 3%
FOUNDATIONS/PARTNER SUPPORTERS
For a full PDF version of Tennessee Justice Center’s 2022 Annual Report click here.