NPR news reports that the new health reform legislation boosts Medicad reimbursement rates for physicians but the increase may be temporary:
To ease the worries of already strained primary care doctors, the new health law includes an increase in Medicaid payment rates, bringing them up to the same level as those from Medicare. That bump is expected to be pretty helpful when a huge chunk of the increase in insurance coverage under the law comes from expanding Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income Americans, to cover 16 million more people.
The problem? Under the new law, the Medicaid raise may only last two years.... The higher Medicaid payments would take effect in 2013 and would be funded entirely by the federal government. But the bill doesn't mention what happens after 2014.
For the full story, click here: More Medicaid Pay For Some Doctors, But Will It Last?; NPR - April 6, 2010
