From the Wall Street Journal Health Blog:
Even if your state is so broke that it’s handing out IOUs instead of paying its bills, there’s a limit to how much you can cut payments to the doctors, dentists and other providers who are caring for the poor, a court ruled on Thursday. Here’s the story from the Los Angeles Times.
The backstory: Last year, as California was heading into its current financial crunch, the state legislature passed a law that would have cut by 10% reimbursements for treating patients covered by Medi-Cal. That’s the state’s version of Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, which is jointly funded by the state and federal governments.
Health-care providers sued to block the cuts last year, and a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled in their favor. A three-judge appeals panel yesterday upheld the ruling. The panel found that the cuts drove so many doctors and others to stop seeing Medi-Cal patients that patients’ ability to get care was jeopardized, violating a federal law that covers Medicaid funding to the states.
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