Doctors Council SEIU Joins Other Organizations to Fight for Parity in Medicaid Reimbursement Rates

Urges Congress to Increase Medicaid Reimbursement Rates as Part of Health Reform

Letter endorses  the House Bill provisions on Medicaid payment rates to guarantee that the poorest and most medically-vulnerable Americans are not left behind by reform.

On January 12, 2010, Doctors Council SEIU joined a broad coalition of health care and HIV/AIDS advocates, physicians, nurses, health care providers, hospitals, labor unions, and community activists to sign a letter urging Congressional leaders now negotiating the final health care reform legislation to include provisions from the House bill that would bring primary care reimbursement rates under Medicaid into partity with Medicare rates for the same services within four years.  118 organizations in total signed the letter, which was delivered on Tuesday, January 12.
We need  to ensure increased access and we also need to ensure that there are enough primary care physicians to take on the new Medicaid patients. 

While both bills would increase enrollement to Medicaid by an estimated 15 million people, the Senate bill does not address the low rates of reimbursement for for primary care providers.  The millions of low-income women, children, minorities and individuals with disabilities who rely upon Medicaid today already have difficulty finding their own primary care physician. While there's a general consensus that Medicare rates for primary care are too low, little attention has been paid to Medicaid, which average 66% of Medicare rates. This disincentive for providers to accept new Medicaid patients will be compounded with the new enrollees granted coverage through comprehensive health care reform.

Read the letter, and see the full list of the 118 organziations.