The lower Medicaid rates are a result of more than $2 billion in emergency budget cuts the Virginia General Assembly made in April. Hospitals and physicians in the state say the cuts will cost them $55 million in reduced reimbursement, according to the report.
The cuts “will cause irreparable harm not only to needy patient populations, but also to hospitals and physician practices themselves, which are already struggling with increased costs and decreased revenue due to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic,” reads the complaint filed by the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association, the Medical Society of Virginia and the Virginia College of Emergency Physicians, according to the report.
The budget actions allow the state to reduce payments for ER services later deemed to be unnecessary and cut payments for services provided to Medicaid patients who are readmitted to the hospital within one month when the readmission was potentially preventable, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Read the full story from the Richmond Times-Dispatch here.
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