Low fees discourage physicians from treating Medicaid patients, but payment delays also play an important role in physician decisions to avoid Medicaid patients, according to a study by the Center for Studying Health System Change.
"Medicaid payment rates matter, but the hassle factor also matters, and this study strongly suggests that higher Medicaid fees won't have the desired effect of increasing access if physicians have to wait months to get paid," said HSC Senior Fellow Peter Cunningham, co-author of the study with HSC Senior Researcher Ann O'Malley.
Previous research has shown that about half of U.S. physicians accept all new Medicaid patients, compared with more than 70 percent of physicians accepting all new privately insured and Medicare patients. Medicaid fee levels vary across states, and research has shown that participation by physicians is higher in states with higher fees than in states with lower fees.
The study, "Do Reimbursement Delays Discourage Medicaid Participation by Physicians?" found that while state policymakers often use higher payment rates to increase physician participation and improve access for Medicaid patients, less attention has been paid to the role of administrative burdens - including payment delays - on physicians' decisions to treat Medicaid patients.
Reports also indicate that reimbursement times for Medicaid varied considerably across states, from a low of 36.9 adjusted days in Kansas to a high of 114.6 days in Pennsylvania. Reimbursement times for Medicaid were longer on average than reimbursement times for commercial insurers in every state, although the disparities ranged from small (Kansas, Ohio) to large (Pennsylvania, Illinois).
The study was published Tuesday as a Web exclusive in the journal (italics) Health Affairs. (end italics)
Has your practice been forced to turn Medicaid patients away due to low payment rates and slow payment cycles? Send your stories to Associate Editor Chelsey Ledue at chelsey.ledue@medtechpublishing.com.