In small-town Tennessee, rural health clinics struggle as state freezes payments

In March, Servolution Health Services threw a party to celebrate its opening as a rural health clinic in Speedwell, Tenn., a small Appalachian town near the Kentucky border with 5,000 children and no pediatrician.

The new clinic, nestled between a cornfield and a dairy farm, brought on a pediatrician. It hired nurse practitioners to provide primary care to adults, too.

In a county with one-fifth of the population living below the poverty level and high rates of diabetes and hypertension, the clinic is a significant addition.

But the celebration was short-lived.

The clinic is now struggling to stay afloat, caught in a prolonged bureaucratic tangle created by officials with the state's TennCare program.

Read more: https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2018/12/27/tenncare-rural-health-care-issues-tennessee/2349379002/