Three advocacy groups have joined in filing a federal lawsuit that seeks to correct TennCare practices they say have illegally denied thousands of Tennesseans access to health care.

In a teleconference with reporters Wednesday, plaintiffs in the lawsuit said that Tennessee is the worst state in the nation when it comes to meeting its legally mandated Medicaid obligations, and is making it harder than any other state for its citizens to even enroll in a Medicaid program.

Specifically, the plaintiffs asserted that TennCare has deliberately made applying for coverage more difficult.

“The state has required all Tennesseans who wish to apply for TennCare coverage to do so through the federal marketplace, even though it knows that the federal marketplace was not intended to serve this function and does not fully process all categories of Medicaid eligibility,” the lawsuit states.

TennCare officials were not immediately available for comment. Dave Smith, spokesman for Gov. Bill Haslam, said it would be inappropriate to comment on pending litigation.

The agency has yet to install an adequate computer system to deal with applications, and has given no timetable for when it will do so.

Decisions on eligibility are often not made within the legally required 45 days, leaving ill applicants without health insurance indefinitely, the plaintiffs said.

TennCare has simply “discontinued granting any opportunity for a fair hearing within the state agency for an applicant to challenge” a decision to deny coverage, according to the lawsuit.

The state has refused to expand Medicaid coverage to residents who are non-disabled, non-elderly and nonpregnant, but are otherwise eligible, the plaintiffs say. The state, they argue, arbitrarily terminates coverage for newborns immediately upon leaving the hospital.

The lawsuit was filed as a class action Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Nashville by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Tennessee Justice Center (TJC) and the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) along several Tennesseans who have been denied Medicaid.

Defendants are Darin Gordon, director of the Bureau of TennCare; Larry B. Martin, commissioner of the state Department of Finance and Administration; and Dr. Raquel Hatter, state commissioner of Human Services.

“Tennessee is playing politics with the lives of its residents,” said Sam Brooke, senior staff attorney with the SPLC.

“It has decided to make it extraordinarily hard to get affordable health care. (Tennessee residents) have to thread the eye of a needle to get health care. It is having a devastating impact on lives in Tennessee.”

Using a “combination of unlawful policy and administrative dysfunction,” the lawsuit states, “Tennessee has created an array of bureaucratic barriers to enrolling in TennCare (and) has known for months that it is violating federal law.”

“They’re throwing a monkey wrench into their own Medicaid program so they can demonize the federal government,” Brooke said. “People in dire need of medical care are being sacrificed.”

Last month authorities from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services accused state officials of failing to meet requirements under the health care law. Some of the same accusations are in the federal lawsuit. Gordon said last month’s letter contained “misstatements or mischaracterizations.