Leaders from the NC Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) presented a number of reports and updates to the North Carolina General Assembly’s (NCGA) Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Medicaid (JLOC-Medicaid) this week. One important report showed that NC Medicaid is currently $181 million below budget forecasts. Legislators pointed out that, if this trend continues, it will be the third consecutive year that NC Medicaid has hit the budget target set by the NCGA. This is welcome news after the tumultuous budgets of 2011, 2012 and 2013, which saw significant decreases in reimbursement rates for physicians and other providers in order to get Medicaid within budget.
The North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) continues to work closely with DHHS and law-makers on the current Medicaid program as well as Medicaid reform. A report on the waiver outlining ideas for how to reform Medicaid will be presented at the March meeting of the JLOC-Medicaid committee.
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My practice, Ahoskie Pediatrics, has suffered from the reimbursement issues over the last three years. I am losing staff because I can’t pay them, including my awesome PNP, Gretchen Simons. I haven’t been able to pay myself since the last week in January 2016. I still go to work every day, because it is not only my job, but I have a four county community to serve, with 80% Medicaid population in rural northeastern NC. Who will take care of my patients if I have to close my practice of 3000-4000 pediatric patients? P.S. I couldn’t pay my dues for this year yet.