California reverses course, adopts 10% physician Medicaid pay cut ...

After July 1st, it will be even more difficult to find a physician that takes medicaid in California, which by today's standards is already not an easy task, so the picking gets slimmer...once more, is there anyone who will pay the bill? The ER rooms will continue to get busier.....BD

Washington -- California physicians, who recently were poised to get a Medicaid pay increase, instead will receive a cut of about $50 million when the 2008-09 fiscal year starts on July 1. The reduction is included in a 10%, $544 million package of Medicaid pay cuts passed last month.

The California Medical Assn., the nonpartisan California Legislative Analyst's Office and some lawmakers said the reductions were ill-advised because they would result in the loss of more than $500 million in federal Medicaid matching funds and encourage physicians to stop accepting Medicaid patients. This, in turn, would delay needed primary care for low-income Californians.
"Cutting funding for health services, particularly when it costs California valuable federal matching funds, is neither humane nor financially sound," said CMA President Richard Frankenstein, MD. Medicaid physician pay before the cuts averaged 61% of Medicare rates. The cuts reduce that to 57%, according to the legislative analyst's office. The state last increased Medicaid rates in 2001.