Primary Care Coding Alert

Recent CMS proposal might boost primary care Medicaid pay.

As most practices remember, the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law in 2010, offered Medicare bonus payments to primary care physicians. Now, it looks like Medicaid providers could see similar boosts.

On May 9, Health and Human Services (HHS) director Kathleen Sebelius announced a new proposal sparked by the Affordable Care Act that would give states more than $11 billion in new funds to distribute to primary care physicians who serve Medicaid patients.

"The increase would bring Medicaid primary care service fees in line with those paid by Medicare," the news release notes. The rule would "reimburse family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatric medicine, and related subspecialists at Medicare levels in 2013 and 2014," it said.

In 2011, over 150,000 primary care providers collected nearly $560 million in higher Medicare payments due to the Affordable Care Act, the HHS news release notes.

To read the news release in its entirety, visit www.hhs.gov/news/press/2012pres/05/20120509b.html.