This story was done in collaboration with Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
House lawmakers this week voted to increase Medicaid payments to primary care doctors and OB/GYNs.
But the roughly $4.5 million in additional funds falls far short of the $60 million doctors say they need to be able to meet the needs of Medicaid patients across the state.
Under the Affordable Care Act, primary care doctors who take Medicaid patients received a pay bump that lasted for two years. The federal government covered the full cost through the end of 2014; states could then decide whether to continue the increased pay rate themselves. The increase was designed to encourage more doctors to see patients covered by Medicaid, the government health program for low-income Americans. The program typically pays far less than the actual cost of care.
House lawmakers eventually decided to add $2.9 million in increased Medicaid payments for OB/GYNs and a $1.5 million increase for certain primary care services and procedures, after pediatricians, OB/GYNs and other providers raised concerns. But that’s still far less than what doctors need to see Medicaid patients and still make enough money to keep the doors open, physicians say.
“We have to start somewhere,” said Fay Fulton, a lobbyist for primary care doctors.
She and others said they are hopeful that they can persuade Georgia senators of the need to increase those amounts in the coming weeks.
On Friday, Sen. Dean Burke, R-Bainbridge, an OB/GYN who chairs the Senate community health subcommittee, vowed “to do everything we can to find the money.”
The reimbursement rates are a problem for all Georgians and not just those on Medicaid, said Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford. The state will lose new doctors to other states if it doesn’t act, Unterman said.
“We’re not giving them an avenue to be able to go to work,” she said.
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