Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital Describe Findings in Internal Medicine (The Impact of Changes In Medicaid Provider Fees On Provider Participation and Enrollees’ Care: a Systematic Literature Review)

2019 NOV 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Current study results on Health and Medicine - Internal Medicine have been published. According to news reporting from Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Changing Medicaid fees is a common approach for states to address budget fluctuations, and many currently set Medicaid physician fees at levels lower than Medicare and private insurers. The Affordable Care Act included a temporary Medicaid fee bump for primary care providers (PCPs) in 2013-2014 that recently led to both an increase and then subsequent decrease in PCP fees in many states.”

Financial supporters for this research include Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Massachusetts General Hospital, “To conduct a systematic literature review on the effects of changing Medicaid fees on provider participation and enrollees’ access to care and service use. We searched PubMed/Medline and JSTOR and identified 18 studies that assessed the longitudinal impact of provider fee changes in Medicaid on the outcomes of interest. We summarized information on study design, methods, and findings. Seven studies examined the impact of fee changes on provider participation in Medicaid. Of these, three studies found that fee increases were associated with positive effects on providers’ likelihood of accepting Medicaid patients or on their Medicaid caseloads. Five studies that examined the impact of fee changes on Medicaid enrollees’ access to care found a positive association with one or more access measure, such as having a usual source of care or appointment availability. Lastly, eight of 14 studies that examined service use found positive associations between fee changes and at least one measure of use, such as changes in the probability of enrollees having any visit, the number of visits, and shifts in the site of care toward office-based care; others largely did not find significant associations. There is mixed evidence on the impact of changing Medicaid fees on provider participation and enrollees’ service use; however, increasing fees appears to have more consistent positive effects on access to care.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Whether these improvements in access translate into better health outcomes or downstream cost savings are critical questions.”

For more information on this research see: The Impact of Changes In Medicaid Provider Fees On Provider Participation and Enrollees’ Care: a Systematic Literature Review. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2019;34(10):2200-2209. Journal of General Internal Medicine can be contacted at: Springer, 233 Spring St, New York, NY 10013, USA. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Journal of General Internal Medicine - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1525-1497)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting L. Saulsberry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mongan Institute, Health Policy Research Center, Boston, MA 02114, United States. Additional authors for this research include V. Seo and V. Fung.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-05160-x. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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