California’s Medicaid Crisis: Optometry Practices Turn Away Patients, Leaders Seek Tax Solution

Medicaid Clients Refused Care: Owner of Optometry Practice Compelled to Stop Receiving Medicaid Due to Insufficient Income

Pressure on the Healthcare System: Insufficient Compensation Rates Present a Problem for Physicians and Patients During California’s Medicaid Expansion

As stated in MedPage Today‘s article, three years ago, Hunter Morgan, OD, bought a Southern California optometry business to serve Medicaid-eligible low-income patients. However, after only five months of taking Medicaid patients, Morgan was forced to stop treating them because she was not getting paid enough. Healthcare providers and patients face further difficulties as a result of the reimbursement rates for doctors not keeping up with the state’s Medicaid expansion, which now covers around 15 million more people.

California’s Medicaid Crisis: Optometry Practices Turn Away Patients, Leaders Seek Tax Solution
(PHOTO: Fierce Healthcare)

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Leaders in California Suggest Using Managed Care Taxes to Increase Medicaid Reimbursement as a Tax Strategy to Increase Healthcare Funding

As pressure on the state Legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom has grown, they have advocated using taxes on managed care corporations to leverage higher Medicaid reimbursement rates. Anthony Chavez, OD, of Fresno, and other optometrists may be able to reevaluate taking Medicaid patients if the strategy is successful in injecting desperately needed funding into the healthcare system. However, given California’s financial problems and the possibility of federal scrutiny of state taxation policies, questions remain about how sustainable these increases will be.

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