Doctors Threaten to Pull Out of Texas Medicaid

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Doctors Threaten to Pull Out of Texas Medicaid

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  Cuts to the reimbursements given to doctors who treat patients covered by the state's low-income health care program are raising fears that already declining physician participation will fall even further, according to a published report.
  

  

  The health care and insurance industries fear that a 1 percent cut in Medicaid fees scheduled to take effect Sept. 1 will be the first in a series of cuts as state agencies are asked to trim their two-year budgets by 10 percent to help cover an expected $18 billion revenue shortfall, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.
  About 3.3 million poor and disabled Texans depend on Medicaid for health care, but less than a third of the state's 48,700 practicing doctors accept patients covered by the federal program, according to Texas Health and Human Services Commission. And some doctors who do participate in the program limit the number and kind of patients they accept.
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  "They're going to try to expand the rolls of Medicaid ... and at the same time they want to reduce the reimbursement to doctors," he said. "With the (pay) trend going downwards, I don't see additional physicians signing up. It's just not going to happen."

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Medicare payment reductions worry doctors, patients

clipped from www.baynews9.com ST. PETERSBURG (Bay News 9) -- March begins with a financial blow for doctors, who are facing a major reduction in Medicare payments. The 21-percent reduction is the result of what some say is an outdated reimbursement formula from the 1990s. Over the years, Congress managed to waive the deficit reduction measure, but legislators failed to repeal it last week. "A 21-percent cut is large, and a little shocking," he said. "You have to figure out your practice style or your lifestyle, if you're gonna make a lot less money." The AMA said the state of Florida's 3 million Medicare beneficiaries already face a shortage of doctors. They estimate that there are only 15 practicing physicians for every 1,000 Medicare patients. The Obama administration is asking that no Medicare payments be reimbursed for the first 10 business days of March, in hopes that the problem will be solved with the end of the Senate stalemate.

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