NEWS FLASH

51 Percent Of Physicians Are Unable To Accept New Medicaid Patients | A new study from Jackson Healthcare finds that 51 percent of physicians surveyed will be unable to accept new Medicaid patients going forward. According to the findings, the top physician specialties that cannot accept new Medicaid patients are dermatologists (34 percent), endocrinologists (36 percent), and plastic surgeons (36 percent). Physicians struggle to take on Medicaid patients due to low reimbursement rates from the Medicaid program; however, President Obama’s health care reform law will seek to address this issue by adding $11 billion in Medicaid funds for primary care physicians over the next two years. Fully funding Obamacare — rather than slashing the funds that would expand coverage for low-income Americans, as Republicans continue to propose — will help increase the number of both doctors and patients who can benefit from the program.