State Has Shortage Of Doctors Willing To Accept Lower Medi-Cal Managed Care Rates
“The insurance companies don’t pay (doctors) enough, and the state won’t pay them enough, so they drop it. And we can’t force them to take it. So what are we supposed to do out here?” says one woman who is fighting to keep her disabled son on the Medi-Cal fee-for-service plan.
Sacramento Bee:
The Doctor Isn’t In: Medi-Cal Patients Struggle To Find Primary Care
Poe-Barham is elbow-deep in a legal battle with the Department of Health Care Services to keep her 28-year-old son on the Medi-Cal fee-for-service plan that has covered the dozens of surgeries, treatments and medications he has needed since being diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 3. If he moves to managed care – a subset of Medi-Cal that relies on insurance plans to provide reimbursement to doctors – she fears he won’t have access to any of it. (Caiola, 10/6)