Under the new health care reform law, millions more Americans will receive insurance coverage under Medicaid. According to Kaiser Health News, the health care reform law will raise Medicaid payment rates to the same level as Medicare rates in an effort to alleviate the burden on primary care physicians.
However, the increase may be temporary. An excerpt:
“The higher Medicaid payments would take effect in 2013 and would be funded entirely by the federal government. But the bill doesn’t mention what happens after 2014.
“Some primary care doctors have voiced concerns about the law. But Lori Heim, president of the American Association of Family Physicians, says that while the law doesn’t solve every problem, it is a step in the right direction. ‘For folks that right now are getting charity care — if they become eligible for Medicaid then at least the doctor will then be receiving something instead of nothing,’ she said.
“In states like Texas, for example, where doctors currently receive about 33 percent less to treat a Medicaid patient than a Medicare patient, a jump in payment by one-third would be a big deal…”
One of the new law’s purposes is to attract more doctors to the primary care field. How would the Medicaid payment increase impact them? Would increasing rates encourage existing primary care doctors to begin accepting new Medicaid patients? Will increasing reimbursement rates encourage more medical students to become primary care physicians?
