Michigan's state government has not demonstrated the same commitment to Medicaid patients, as exemplified in its refusal to make both timely payments to doctors serving this population and enough payment to at least reimburse physician costs. Unfortunately, the recent shift of the Medicaid program to managed care has created new and burdensome obstacles for doctors already dealing with problems caused by underpayment. The results have been detrimental both to Medicaid patients and to physician practices. It ranked among the lowest 10 states in Medicaid reimbursement. Still, physicians continued to willingly fulfill their ethical obligation to treat Medicaid patients.
Bureaucrats divorce themselves from responsibilities for care that the state used to take seriously.
That may serve the ideology of privatization, but Michigan's healthcare system and the people who depend on it are paying the price. However, with the state's transfer of Medicaid responsibilities to private for-profit health plans intent on saving money, physicians have experienced more bureaucratic obstacles and even less Medicaid reimbursement since middlemen are now taking a chunk of it. Delayed payment, difficulties obtaining preauthorizations, denial of payment and mountains of paperwork are just a few that physicians and their office staffs must overcome. This added burden further ups the cost of treating a Medicaid treatment while at the same time slowing down service. Less resources to go around, in other words.