Medicaid cuts hit everybody, healthcare providers say

All three health care providers made it perfectly clear at a press conference held Monday, Aug. 1. The cuts to the Medicaid program in Alabama will affect every Alabama citizen—not just those on Medicaid.

“And the time to act is now,” was the message Professional Medical Associate’s Dr. Beverly Jordan, Dale Medical Center CEO Vernon Johnson and Dr. Michael Ramsey of Dothan Pediatrics stressed at one of the organized meetings statewide Monday held to urge the Alabama Legislature to provide sustainable Medicaid funding for the remainder of this year and into the future.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has called a special legislative session in two weeks to discuss a possible statewide referendum to allow a vote on a state lottery. One of several proposed beneficiaries of lottery revenue is Medicaid.

The Wiregrass physicians encouraged people to visit www.iammedicaid.com and contact state lawmakers to encourage them to protect Alabama’s healthcare system by reversing this cut and fully funding Alabama Medicaid.

The Alabama Medicaid program was funded $85 million less than what it needs to provide health care for more than 1 million Alabamians. Beginning Aug. 1, the reimbursement the state of Alabama provides to doctors who treat Medicaid patients was reduced by an average of 30 percent. The cuts were announced in July.

Additional cuts are expected unless more funding is appropriated to Medicaid before the start of the next fiscal year.

“The adult Medicaid patients are the patients in the nursing homes, our family members who are no longer able to care for themselves in their homes and who do not have the financial resources to pay for in home care,” Jordan said, adding that Alabama runs one of the most economical Medicaid programs in the United States. “We love your grandmother, we love your children, we love all our patients and we want to be able to continue to provide health care services.

“We want to take care of those who are the most vulnerable but in order to do so, Medicaid has to be fully funded in the state of Alabama,” Jordan said. “We already have 20 percent of our population who does not have health insurance at all.”

As a result of the cuts, doctors across the state are reducing the number of patients in their care, laying off staff and in some cases, closing their practices. The effect is more severe in the more rural areas such as the Wiregrass, Johnson said. “This will mean longer wait times and less access to quality healthcare for every Alabama citizen in need of a doctor's office or emergency room,” Johnson said. “These cuts are devastating and they are dangerous.

“We are classified as a rural hospital in a medically underserved county,” Johnson said. “A common misunderstanding is that people think that Medicaid cuts will not affect them.”

The cuts make it more difficult to recruit doctors and other specialists to the largely rural area, which could lead to doctors choosing not to accept new Medicaid patients. “That could lead to longer emergency room wait times,” Johnson said, adding that the Dothan Pediatrics Satellite office in Dale County that was planned for this year has been put on indefinite hold due to the Medicaid cuts. “We have an already fragile health care system.”

Anne Davis, Enterprise Medical Clinic administrator, said Tuesday that EMC is continuing business as usual treating Medicaid patients and is considering expanding operating hours as flu season approaches.

Ramsey, past president of the Alabama Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the Dothan Pediatric Healthcare Network, which consists of the Dothan Pediatric Clinic and satellite offices in Eufaula and Enterprise, said the cuts will result in a revenue loss of some $140,000 a month. Employee layoffs and delay of the planned satellite office in Ozark have been the immediate result. Most of the employees were clerical, making it more difficult to make appointments, provide requested medical documentation and check patients in for doctor visits.

Seventy eight percent of the newborns at Southeast Alabama Medical Center and 57 percent of the newborns from Flowers Hospital are Medicaid patients, Ramsey said. “The patient demographics in our practice area are unlikely to change in the near future.”

“The time to act is now,” said Jordan. “Please take a minute and email your state senator, state representative and the governor to let them know that Alabama's healthcare system needs to be made a priority.”