IL Sees Doctor Doctor Shortage for Medicaid
The program pays too little for physicians to bother
Illinois Medicaid Director Julie Hamos is warning that there won't be enough doctors to treat the expected surge next year of new Medicaid patients unless more physicians participate in the health care program for the poor.
"This is the thing that keeps me awake at night," Ms. Hamos, the director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, which administers Medicaid, said last week. "Where are the providers to serve all these new people?"
About 1.2 million uninsured people in Illinois are expected to gain some form of health insurance coverage on Jan. 1 under the landmark overall of health care. About half of those people will be newly eligible for Medicaid.
"We don't have enough doctors in the pipeline," Ms. Hamos said during the keynote speech at an April 4 Institute of Medicine of Chicago leadership breakfast.
