Posted on 12/06/2017 10:07:48 PM PST by nickcarraway
Low-income Medicaid patients in New Mexico may soon have to pay more for certain brand-name drugs or if they visit the emergency room to receive routine medical care, under a reform plan submitted Wednesday to federal regulators.
The state Human Services Department applied for federal authorization of new copayments and monthly premiums in an effort to conserve state spending on Medicaid health care for the poor and disabled.
Human Service Secretary Brent Earnest said New Mexico's waiver application also would expand services for substance abuse disorders and phase out retroactive health care coverage by 2020 for newly enrolled patients.
(Excerpt) Read more at kob.com ...
The fee for visiting an ER for routine medical care should be much higher. $25? Please! If I go to the ER whether it’s for routine care or an emergency, even with 2 medical insurances, my fee is more than $25. Why should people on Medicaid use an ER for routine care?
The poor in NM routinely go to Texas hospitals.
They shouldn’t, but they can because they are not ding’d for it.
There’s a reason that a mission group I’m familiar with goes to Haiti and gives out free medicines, but they make everybody who stands in line pay a minimal fee like $3-5. If they pay nothing to see the doctor, they don’t value the service and take it for granted.
The MCaid patients who likely all have free smart phones, Section 8 housing, EBT, etc, could well afford a small co-pay to have some skin in the game, as well as making it just high enough to deter ER use for routine things.
I agree completely.
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