A two-year Medicaid federal rate increase up to Medicare levels for primary care providers will expire on January 1, 2015. The rate was a result of an Affordable Care Act provision to induce more physicians to accept Medicaid patients.
According to an Urban Institute report (http://www.urban.org/publications/2000025.html), primary care doctors Medicaid fees will fall by an average of 43 percent. Alabama, Mississippi, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa and Maryland are extending the fee increase.
The House of Representatives does not appear to be interested in extending the temporary rate increase. But Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced and referred a bill addressing this issue to the Senate Committee on Finance on December 11, 2014. The bill had only one co-sponsor, Martin Heinrich (D-NM). The bill, “Ensuring Enhanced Access to Primary Care Act”, S. 3007, would extend the Medicare payment rate until 2017 and add “neurologists, psychiatrists, OB-GYNs, and internists to those receiving rate increases.
Bill Text and Status: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s3007
Synopsis courtesy of Marilyn Singleton, MD, JD @MSingletonMDJD
