Medicare-Medicaid Pay Disparities Reported

A U.S. consumer advocacy organization says physicians in four states and the District of Columbia are paid far less for Medicaid services than other doctors.

The Public Citizen report said physicians in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia receive less Medicaid compensation than do doctors in many other states who provide identical services to the same patient group.

The organization says that means patients in states with low Medicaid reimbursement might have difficulty finding physicians to treat them.

The analysis showed that, except for Alaska and Wyoming, which pay physicians more under Medicaid than under Medicare, Medicaid fees tend to be lower than Medicare fees across the nation. But some states pay at or near parity — including Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware and North Carolina — and their average fees were used to compare fees in the low-paying states.

As long as Medicaid fee schedules shortchange providers, the program and its clientele will be considered less worthy, and access to care will be restricted for the poorest, neediest Americans, said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group.

The report is available at www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7541