More than half of Ohio's primary care doctors will keep seeing the same number of Medicaid recipients after a significant but temporary pay boost expires at year's end – while 7 percent say they'll stop accepting Medicaid entirely, according to a survey by two physician trade groups.
The Affordable Care Act raised Medicaid payments for two years to equal Medicare for certain primary care services, mainly assessments and vaccinations. On Jan. 1 rates go back to their previous levels – about 59 cents on the dollar compared to what Medicare pays.
The House ended its "lame duck" session with a budget deal that didn't please most physician groups.
The $1.1 trillion budget bill, which was passed by the House on Thursday and is expected to be passed shortly by the Senate, is lacking any fix to the widely hated sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for physician reimbursement under Medicare. Also missing in action: an extension of the current pay bump for primary care physicians who see Medicaid patients.
The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC), commends the Senate Finance, House Ways and Means, and Energy and Commerce Committees on their bipartisan agreement to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) and replace it with a reimbursement model that moves the U.S. health care delivery system away from the current volume-based payment system to one that rewards quality, efficiency, and innovation.
