Doctors, nursing home owners and others who provide health care services to Georgians in public health programs will get about a $140 million boost in payments after a key state board gave final approval to the increase Thursday.
The Department of Community Health board backed the new payment rates, which were funded by the General Assembly during this year’s legislative session.
Two-thirds of the money, or more than $90 million of it, will come from the federal government, which helps fund the Medicaid program.
Doctor payments will rise more than 50 percent for some procedures and care when the rates go into effect July 1. Health care providers have long said that low payments made it hard for physicians to stay in the Medicaid program or keep their practices going in general.
“This is going to make a tremendous difference,” said Dr. Evelyn Johnson, whose Brunswick practice is made up largely of patients on Medicaid, the government health care program for low-income and disabled Georgians. “This is a remarkable achievement.”
Johnson, the president of the Georgia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said it would help doctors with heavy Medicaid patient loads update equipment, retain and give better benefits to staff, and make it more affordable to continue serving low-income families.
While some inner-city doctors also have high Medicaid patient loads, the rate hike may be particularly important in small-town Georgia, where officials are afraid of losing physicians because of the government reimbursement rates.
"What you were seeing is doctors were having to say they couldn't handle any more Medicaid patients," said House Appropriations Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn, whose committee proposed higher doctor and nursing home reimbursements this year. "What this does is it continues to ensure that there is (health care) access across the state."
England said the increase will help stabilize medical practices in areas of Georgia where patients may have to travel 45 minutes, an hour or more for appointments.
Lawmakers also aimed to help rural health care this session by approving tax credits for people who make contributions to nonprofit organizations that provide health care to rural Georgians.
The measure, signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal, would offer millions of dollars in state tax credits in an attempt to encourage investments in rural areas where hospitals are closing or are under severe financial strain.
The nursing home hike — about $35 million — amounts to a 3 percent increase. The increase comes on top of a special $27 million increase for select nursing homes approved for lawmakers last year.
That rate hike made news in 2014 when the DCH board stalled it, raising questions about why it was necessary. Some lawmakers who voted for the increase after it was initially added during the 2014 session said they didn't remember it. But the General Assembly gave it full backing last year when Deal included it in his budget proposal, and a DCH board with new members approved it.
One of the major beneficiaries of the special hike was a company owned by one of Deal's top political donors.
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