NCMS has joined with the majority of state societies and national and state specialty societies in signing onto a letter urging both houses of Congress to oppose any legislation that would eliminate an increase in Medicaid primary care payment. The Medicaid payment increase is an important policy that attempts to better align payment rates with cost of care for primary care physicians, thus increasing access to primary care physicians for millions of Medicaid patients.

The increase recently was finalized in a rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and scheduled to be implemented on January 1.

“Elimination of this policy further burdens the already challenged Medicaid system of today. Patients will face obstacles to connecting with a patient-centered medical home and will be forced to rely on episodic, acute care services provided in other settings, foregoing the more cost-effective coordinated and preventive care services that primary care physicians provide,” the letter to the leadership of the Senate and House reads. “Policies aimed at improving access to physicians in the Medicaid program are strongly supported by our organizations because we understand that investments such as these lead to better quality of care for patients and decreased costs for state governments.”

Read the entire letter here.