The President of the South Dakota State Medical Association says the state’s Medicaid program is chronically underfunded. Doctor Mary Milroy says Governor Daugaard’s proposed two percent increase in provider reimbursements is a good step, but she says she wishes the state would do more. She says Medicaid reimbursement rates have not kept up with inflation.
Doctor Mary Milroy says there were a couple of Medicaid issues missing from the Governor’s budget address. She says the Affordable Care Act included a primary provider enhanced payment program, raising Medicaid reimbursement rates to match Medicare rates for 2013 and 2014. She says that’s set to expire on December 31st.
“That means that really for a lot of the primary care providers, they will see about a 31 cent on the dollar decrease in their reimbursement,” Milroy says. “And for many people it is significantly below the cost of actually providing the service in their clinic. So we’re just concerned that with the chronic underfunding it will lead to a reduction in care.”
Milroy says she would also like to see Medicaid expanded to include individuals up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level.