The North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) Government Affairs staff is working with key legislators to repeal the 3 percent retroactive cut to Medicaid reimbursements. In August 2014, the General Assembly mandated a 3 percent cut to physician payments to be effective retroactively to Jan. 1, 2014. The 3 percent reduction in physician payments going forward started on Monday, March 2. The recoup of payments for the last 14 months, however, has not yet been implemented.
In a statement released to the media on Monday, when the NC Department of Health and Human Services began the 3 percent reduction in payments going forward, NCMS President Robert E. Schaaf, MD, FACR, stated: “North Carolina’s physicians are preparing for an unprecedented retroactive payment cut on services already provided to Medicaid patients over the last 14 months….requiring these medical practices to pay back 3 percent of what the state has already paid them…would wreak havoc with the finances of these businesses.”
As part of the effort, hundreds of NCMS members responded thus far to our call to contact their legislators to ask them to repeal this unnecessary and ill-advised retroactive take back of money paid for services provided to the state’s most vulnerable population. Review talking points (PDF) with examples of how medical practices throughout the state would be affected by such a retroactive cut help make the case.
Take action and contact your legislator.
