If you treat a patient who receives both Medicare and Medicaid, your reimbursement will be limited. Earlier this year, lawmakers eliminated the Medicaid co-pay to save money in the state budget. As a result, providers might turn away more Medicaid and Medicare patients. An excerpt from the Dallas Morning News:
“Doctors have to make the difficult decision whether to continue to treat these patients even though it doesn’t make any financial sense,” said Steve Levine, a spokesman for the Texas Medical Association.
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, has asked Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs to re-evaluate the impact of these cuts and restore coverage for cancer patients.
“These cuts are about to put at risk the lives of some of our most vulnerable Texans,” Davis said in a prepared statement. “These are poor, elderly patients who have no health care options other than Medicare and Medicaid, and if the state fails to help maximize those funds, then these dual-eligible patients may be denied treatment that would save their lives.”
But the savings will come at the expense of some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens, Bruce Malone, president of the Texas Medical Association, told the Texas Health and Human Service Commission at a public hearing in November.
He said it’s already difficult to find physicians willing to accept new Medicare patients.
A Texas Medical Association survey conducted earlier this year found that 25 percent of physicians limit the number of new Medicare patients, and 8 percent will accept no new Medicare patients. The percentages are even higher for primary-care physicians.
The problem will get worse as the health care reform law takes effect and millions more people are added to the Medicaid rolls. As the article notes, the lower-income population in Texas is growing, and the state already has one of the lowest Medicaid reimbursement rates. Where will the money come from to pay for the coverage?