Congress has gone home for the rest of this term without solving either the Sustainable Growth Rate issue or providing the additional compensation previously provided to primary care providers to take care of Medicaid patients by paying them the Medicare reimbursement rate.

These are two issues that we have previously addressed in blogs.  It is clear that this Congress did not want to address the SGR issue, nor does Congress want to increase the budget, by providing additional funding for the limited number of Medicaid procedures provided by “primary care doctors” so that that reimbursement rate would equal the Medicare rate.

With the expansion of the Medicaid population under the Affordable Care Act, this will clearly mean many fewer physicians will be willing to take care of Medicaid patients and that these patients will be forced either into hospital clinics or other alternative delivery systems, if they are to get care.