Increased Medicaid payments to primary care providers, per the Patient and Protection Affordable Care Act, was advantageous for patients, as Medicaid enrollees saw improved appointment availability among participating providers without longer waiting times, according to an article published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The article presents findings related to the association between the increase in Medicaid payments and "appointment availability for Medicaid enrollees seeking new-patient primary care appointments at physician offices that participated in Medicaid."
The study looked at the availability of and waiting times for appointments in 10 states during the time periods of November 2012 through March 2013 as well as May 2014 through July 2014. Trained field staff posed as either Medicaid enrollees or privately insured enrollees for the study, according to the article.
Study results show that primary care appointment availability in the Medicaid group rose by 7.7 percentage points between those time periods, according to the article.
Additionally, the study found there was a tendency for states with the largest increases in availability to have the largest increases in reimbursements. Specifically, there was an estimated increase of 1.25 percentage points in availability per 10 percent increase in Medicaid reimbursements, according to the article.
The study also notes that the same correlation was not seen in the private-insurance group and that "waiting times to a scheduled new-patient appointment remained stable over time in the two study groups."
According to the article, Medicaid agencies in each state were required by the PPACA to raise Medicaid reimbursements up to Medicare rates for primary care services in 2013 and last year.
More articles on healthcare finance:
Questions surround future of $14M Cadillac Mercy Hospital Foundation endowment
Moody's affirms Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's 'A1' ratings
CFO Lori Wooten: Managing finances for hospital operations at Capella