The following op-ed ran in the Carlsbad Current-Argus on May 8, 2016.
New Mexico has a "Dr. Abernethy" problem.
In 2014, The Wall Street Journal explored the ways that Obamacare's expansion of Medicaid was "straining some health-care systems that already don't have enough doctors and staff" and challenging "medical practices' bottom lines in ways that lead them to turn some away."
Reporter Louise Radnofsky described how Dr. Holly Abernarthy, a family practitioner in Farmington,
has turned away all newly eligible Medicaid beneficiaries because she can't sustain her practice expenses if her proportion of Medicaid patients grows much beyond her current 13 percent.
For a moderately complex office visit, she is paid about the same as [a] nurse practitioner: about $80 from Medicaid and about $160 on average from commercial insurance.
Says Dr. Abernethy, "I would love to see every Medicaid patient that comes through my door. If you give people coverage, they should be able to utilize it." But making it work would extend her workday, and "I have three small children and I miss them."
A year and a half later, things are about to get a whole lot worse for Dr. Abernethy -- and her colleagues.
The New Mexico Human Services Department is preparing to implement the legislature's mandate that it "reduce reimbursement rates paid to Medicaid providers." The healthcare bureaucracy's plan does not impact prevention or obstetrics, but cuts for inpatient, outpatient, and dental services would range from 1 percent to 8 percent. As the Associated Press noted, the "University of New Mexico Hospital would see the steepest reimbursement reductions -- 8 percent for inpatient services and 5 percent for outpatient." Previously "enhanced" rate for uncompensated care at 29 state hospitals would be reversed.
