Having a baby in Tennessee

Program

TennCare

Agency

Division of TennCare

Medicaid limit

255% of the poverty level

CHIP unborn-child option

Yes, at the Medicaid limit

12-month postpartum coverage since

April 1, 2022

Presumptive eligibility

Yes. A qualified clinic or hospital can enroll you right away.

Tennessee has no state paid family leave program. A 2023 law lets insurers sell paid family leave policies to employers, so you're covered only if your employer buys one.

Program

Voluntary paid family leave insurance (employer-purchased)

Law in effect since

January 1, 2024

Pay

Set by each policy; only if your employer buys coverage.

Job protection

This law does not protect your job. The federal FMLA may: up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave if your employer has 50+ employees within 75 miles and you have worked there 12 months and 1,250 hours. Tennessee's Parental Leave Act lets full-time employees at a job site with 100+ full-time workers take up to 4 months of leave for pregnancy, childbirth, nursing an infant or adoption, after 12 consecutive months. Pay is the employer's choice. Give 3 months' notice (medical emergencies excepted) to keep your right to return.

Who qualifies

Only employees (people for whom the employer completes a Form I-9; not independent contractors) whose employer buys a family leave insurance policy or rider; eligibility rules are set by the policy. No state-run program.

State leave law

Tennessee's Parental Leave Act lets full-time employees at a job site with 100+ full-time workers take up to 4 months of leave for pregnancy, childbirth, nursing an infant or adoption, after 12 consecutive months. Pay is the employer's choice. Give 3 months' notice (medical emergencies excepted) to keep your right to return.

Notes

These laws only allow insurers to sell family leave insurance to employers. They do not cover your own recovery from pregnancy or childbirth, which is paid (if at all) by short-term disability insurance, and there is no state agency to apply to; claims go to the insurer named on your employer's policy. The state's employer tax incentive for family leave insurance covered only the 2024 and 2025 tax years and has expired.

Voluntary means you're covered only if your employer buys a policy or joins an opt-in plan. Checked October 2026. Amounts usually change January 1 and July 1, so confirm with the state before you plan.

In Tennessee, TennCare plans pay for outpatient lactation visits with no visit limit, and IBCLCs without another medical license bill through a supervising provider.

Who can bill

physician; nurse practitioner; physician assistant; certified nurse-midwife; IBCLC; local health department

Where

outpatient; home; telehealth

Visit limits

No limit on the number of visits; limit of 3 units per patient within a 24-hour period; additional information may be requested above 15 units per patient

IBCLCs can enroll on their own

No

Since

June 1, 2023

Notes

TennCare (all three MCOs: BlueCare Tennessee, Wellpoint, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan) pays for outpatient lactation visits billed with 98960-98962 plus modifier U8 since June 1, 2023, for pregnant and postpartum members and their babies. IBCLCs can contract independently only if they also hold a listed license (for example RN, dietitian, physician); IBCLCs without such a license and CLCs, CLSs, CBSs and CLEs must work under and bill through a supervising in-network provider. Inpatient lactation education stays in the delivery global payment and is not billable under this benefit.

Tennessee Medicaid member information

Full-time provider prices before any subsidy, in 2022 dollars. The national median for center infant care was $12,647 a year. 95 county infant center prices were not surveyed in 2022; DOL estimated them from the price trend between other survey years.