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CMA
Criticizes
Budget's 5% Cut to
Medi-Cal Provider Rates
CMA officials this week sharply criticized a 5 percent cut in Medi-Cal fees in the proposed state budget, saying the fee cut would hurt patients and cost the state more than it saves. The budget has been sent to the governor, who is expected to approve it. A month-long legislative standoff over the budget ended Tuesday when the Assembly voted 56 to 22 to approve the $100 billion budget. Included in it was the 5 percent cut to Medi-Cal physician fees. The Assembly’s vote follows Senate passage Sunday by a 27-to-10 vote. Medi-Cal was cut despite Congressional approval of a Medicaid bailout that makes available an additional $1.3 billion in federal matching funds for Medi-Cal, more than enough to offset the proposed cuts. Instead the budget reduces Medi-Cal by $237 million, $122 million of which would have come in federal matching funds. "It is shameful that legislators have decided that the way to resolve some of the budget shortfalls is to reduce the availability of needed health care to millions of our poorest residents," says CMA president Ronald Bangasser, M.D. "Meanwhile, federal matching funds will be forfeited. This is poor money management and bad politics."The 5 percent cut would mean that an internist or family physician would receive only $22.80 for an average office visit. Before the cut, California had ranked 42nd out of 50 states in its reimbursement levels to physicians. In a CMA survey last year, 75 percent of physicians said further cuts to Medi-Cal would limit the number of Medi-Cal patients they are able to see; 68 percent said they would stop seeing new Medi-Cal patients; and 40 percent said they would cease participating in the program altogether. Medi-Cal patients are primarily children, the poor, the elderly, and the disabled. Patients unable to find care when they are ill will be forced into emergency rooms, where the cost of care—and eventual cost to the state—is multiplied three or four times. "Making these cuts will actually cost the state money," says Dr. Bangasser. "These cuts are very short-sighted." CMA officials say they will fight this and any other cut to Medi-Cal reimbursements when the legislature returns next month. CMA has begun identifying alternate Medi-Cal funding sources and will attempt to get the 5 percent cut rescinded before it takes effect on Jan. 1, 2004. Contact: Heather Campbell, 916/444-5532 or hcampbell@cmanet.org.
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