Medicaid Doc Compensation Hike Falls Behind Schedule

Bureaucracy offers a taste of the regulated future

A huge pay raise promised under the Affordable Care Act for primary care doctors who treat the nation's poor covered by Medicaid health insurance is nearly three months behind schedule and may take another three months before it kicks in, state Medicaid directors say.

Under the health law, a primary care doctor – a family physician, a pediatrician or an internist – who treats a Medicaid patient will see their reimbursement rise to the level of the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly for scores of primary care services.  Doctors do have to apply to their state Medicaid programs and meet certain criteria in part proving that they have historically treated certain numbers of Medicaid patients.