As potential Medicaid fee cuts loom, physicians in Texas are threatening to drop Medicaid patients, the Dallas Morning News reports.
Forty-five percent of doctors polled by the Texas Medical Association in March said they would limit the number of Medicaid patients they see if Medicaid fees were cut by 1 or 2 percent. One-quarter said they would no longer see Medicaid patients.
In a state where less than one-third of the 49,000 doctors treat the three million Texans who depend on Medicaid for healthcare, such a move would further impair the state's ability to deliver healthcare to the poor, according to KETKNBC.com.
Texas leaders settled on a 1 percent cut for all Medicaid providers except home health agencies, trimming state spending by $64 million in the fiscal year that begins Sept. 1. The state surrenders $115 million in federal matching money.
Lou Montanaro, a Carrollton-based obstetrician, told the Morning News that his colleagues don't see the point of caring for Medicaid patients. "If they're busy enough already seeing insured patients, why would they set aside time to work at 50 percent or less?" he said.
With its $18 billion revenue shortfall, Texas is just one of many states strapped for cash. The states are already facing a combined total of $89 billion in fiscal 2011 deficits, according to American Medical News. They're counting on a full $24 billion Medicaid funding extension. But that will depend on Congress approving the allocation of more Medicaid dollars.
Republicans and some fiscally conservative Democrats have dug in and opposed proposed extensions, because the bills would only add to the national deficit and would not be offset by spending cuts or revenues. If an extension on Medicaid funding doesn't get approved by Congress, states may have to make bigger cuts than they've made in decades.
To learn more:
- read the Dallas Morning News article
- see the KETKNBC.com piece
- read the American Medical News article
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