Short-Term Medicaid Rate Hike Breeds Long-Term Concerns (Washington Independent)

[chill_wind]

I didn't know this. To me, it was one of the stronger points (of what was left of) the package:

Short-Term Medicaid Rate Hike Breeds Long-Term Concerns
Higher Payments to Doctors Set to Expire After Two Years
By Mike Lillis 4/1/10 6:00 AM

It’s been trumpeted as one of the key elements in the Democrats’ plan to expand access to health care for tens of millions of vulnerable Americans.

Yet a provision of the newly passed health reform bill that raises doctors’ payments under Medicaid is both temporary and limited in the scope of medical services it covers. The restrictions have left a number of health care advocates and doctors’ groups concerned about patients’ long-term access to care under the reform legislation.

(snip)

Recognizing that problem, House Democrats passed legislation in December hiking certain payments under Medicaid to at least the level paid by Medicare, the federal program for seniors and the disabled. The bill initially passed by the House of Representatives allocated $57 billion to those rate increases over 10 years — a cost that Democrats more recently rejected as too high.

Instead, the health reconciliation bill signed by President Obama this week hikes Medicaid rates only for the years 2013 and 2014. The federal government would pay the entire tab of the increase, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will cost $8.3 billion. From 2015 onward, it would fall to states to pick up the difference in cost — a tough sell in a frail economy, when state budgets are already strapped.

There are other concerns. The rate hikes, for example, apply only to some primary care and pediatric services. Emergency room and other critical care services wouldn’t be subject to the increase. Nor would counseling, disability examinations, services delivered over the phone or a long list of other procedures.

Dawn Horner, a health policy expert at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, said the Democrats’ reform bill goes a long way to improve access to care for Medicaid patients, “but it would be better if the Medicaid increases were across the board.”

more at the link: http://washingtonindependent.com/81144/short-term-medicaid-rate-hike-breeds-long-term-concerns

[Demeter]

1. God Forbid We Should Pay Wholesale Even

for an essential part of life for the People....