Amid growing budget pressures, a number of states have reduced Medicaid payments to providers – and others are looking to Medicaid as a possible source of savings.
So far, Idaho and North Carolina have reduced Medicaid payments to providers while Illinois is looking at Medicaid, among other sources, in the face of its governor’s desire to reduce spending by four percent in the coming year. In addition, Indiana is pursuing a complex process of increasing state Medicaid payments to some providers through state directed payments but the net effect, according to hospital groups, could be an actual reduction of nearly $1 billion in state Medicaid spending.
Rural and safety-net hospitals will probably be hurt the most by such initiatives.
Learn moe about how states are turning to Medicaid in search of spending cuts and how they are looking to implement such cuts from the Modern Healthcare article “Hospital Medicaid pay cuts spread as state budget gaps widen” (password required).