The temporary rate increase that the Affordable Care Act provided as means of encouraging more doctors to serve Medicaid patients did not work, according to two new studies published in the journal Health Affairs.
According to the studies, the increase in the number of physicians who decided to begin serving Medicaid patients as a result of the fee increase was negligible.
Among the reasons the studies’ authors offer for the lack of growth in the participation of doctors are the limited nature of the pay raise and the documentation required to receive it.
Despite this, the authors note, access to care did improve as a result of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.
Learn more about the studies, their results, and their significance by going here to see the Health Affairs report “No Association Found Between The Medicaid Primary Care Fee Bump And Physician-Reported Participation In Medicaid and here for the study “Physicians’ Participation In Medicaid Increased Only Slightly Following Expansion.”