Gov. Robert Bentley announced today that the Alabama Medicaid Agency would restore payments to doctors to levels they were before cuts were made effective Aug. 1.
The payments were reduced because of an $85 million shortfall in Medicaid’s budget for the year that starts Oct. 1.
The reduced payments to doctors were expected to save about $14.7 million in state dollars.
But two weeks ago, the Legislature passed a bill to close the 2017 budget gap and provide additional funding for Medicaid in 2018.
Medicaid will get $120 million over two years from an estimated $640 million bond issue backed by money from an oil spill settlement with BP.
The cuts had applied to primary care doctors, family physicians, internists and others for office visits and some other services.
For example, the Medicaid payment to a doctor for a 25-minute office visit by a Medicaid recipient dropped from $101 to $67. The payment for giving the hepatitis A vaccination dropped …
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Alabama Medicaid Agency restores payment rates for doctors