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Medicaid Funding Cuts Would Mean Fewer Services For The Poor
06/30/09 - 07:48 PM
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Private health-care providers who treat Louisiana’s poor are facing a $180 million cut in the government health insurance program that pays them.

The amount is far less than originally expected. But the cut’s impact will be hard to measure until the state Department of Health and Hospitals drafts new rules. Louisiana Hospital Association president John Matessino says his members want to know the percentage they are going to be cut. But Matessino said he won’t know until DHH comes up with new rules that would tell how much private providers would be paid for the care they render to Medicaid patients.

Some private health-care providers worry that the cuts could result in private physicians leaving the Medicaid program and hospitals reducing services and laying off employees.