Providers Brace for Medi-Cal Rate Cut, Hold Concerns About Access to Care

In a California Healthline report by Kenny Goldberg, experts discussed how a 2011 law to cut reimbursement rates by 10% for all providers of Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program.

At a time when California is poised to expand Medi-Cal to 1.4 million more Californians, the demand on many physicians is expected to rise while Medi-Cal reimbursement rates fall (though federal reimbursement could actually bump up rates for two years for primary care providers).

Provider groups are concerned that physicians may stop seeing Medi-Cal patients, creating an inability to access health care for many Californians. State officials don’t believe that will happen.

The report includes comments from:

• Dustin Corcoran, CEO of the California Medical Association;
• Jan Emerson Shea, vice president of the California Hospital Association;
• Ted Mazer, a San Diego otolaryngologist and communications director for the San Diego County Medical Society; and
• Norman Williams, communications director for the California Department of Health Care Services (Goldberg, California Healthline, 8/13).

You can download a PDF transcript of this report.