Low Reimbursements Cause California Doctors To Reject Medi-Cal Patients

March 24, 2008 9:46 a.m. EST

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - California doctors are shunning Medi-Cal patients over the low reimbursements that they have been getting. In 2000, half of the state's physicians were already turning away Medi-Cal patients after the medics increased their rates. Since then more medical practitioners have closed their doors to Medi-Cal patients.

Following the rise in rejection of patients holding state health insurance cards, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to announced by Tuesday a plan to file a suit by local governments and healthcare providers to force a return to rates before a 10 percent cut was made in February on doctors' fees.

The low reimbursement rates provide doctors only a net of $24 per patient visit. Because of the unattractiveness of Medi-Cal reimbursement rates to medical practitioners, Chris Perrone, an analyst at the California Healthcare Foundation, warns the state medical insurance program may "fall off the edge".

Despite the small reimbursements it pays private state doctors, Medi-Cal eats a major chunk of the state budget, second to education. For 2009, Medi-Cal is expected to cost the state's taxpayers $38 billion, of which amount $15 billion will come from California's general fund. Over 6.7 million poor, elderly and disable Californians are dependent on Medi-Cal for their health needs.

The 10 percent cut in doctor's fees sought to help balance the state budget, which is projected to have a huge shortfall this year. Even without the cuts, California has one of the lowest amount allocated for medical spending, around 30 percent lower than the national average among the U.S.' 10 most populated states, based on a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Because of the low reimbursement rate, only 46 primary care providers for every 100,000 Californians are willing to take in Medi-Cal patients, versus 60 to 80 per 100,000 across the nation.