Providers Fear Iowa Cuts

DES MOINES — The state government's plan to privatize Medicaid services includes a new payment system that organizations helping people with physical, mental or developmental disabilities say cuts their reimbursements enough that it could force smaller organizations to close and leave people they serve scrambling to find needed services.

The providers include mental health centers and organizations that serve the most vulnerable adults and children in Iowa who rely on Medicaid for treatment, assisted living, behavioral programming and improving day-to-day living skills. These services often are used by people with brain injuries or those born with physical or intellectual disabilities.

California Medicaid Providers Win Battle

SACRAMENTO — A federal judge on Friday barred California from reducing payments for certain Medicaid services for developmentally disabled Californians.
Medicaid providers will not have to comply with a policy forcing them to bill for only half a day when they work for less than 65 percent of the workday.

Half of Medicaid Providers Not Available to Treat Patients, Report Finds

WASHINGTON — Large numbers of doctors who are listed as serving Medicaid patients are not available to treat them, federal investigators said in a new report.

“Half of providers could not offer appointments to enrollees,” the investigators said in the report, which will be issued on Tuesday.

Many of the doctors were not accepting new Medicaid patients or could not be found at their last known addresses, according to the report from the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services. The study raises questions about access to care for people gaining Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act.