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GOVERNMENT & MEDICINE

Medicare & Medicaid: A study in contrasts

Quick View. Oct. 15, 2007.

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Medicaid rates for physician services vary much more widely among states than do Medicare rates.

As a result, per-service payments from the two programs come close to matching in some states, while in others doctors are paid much less for their low-income patients than for their elderly patients. The fear is that physicians in low-paying states will stop seeing Medicaid patients. Here is a sampling of what states pay for an initial office visit with a new patient under Medicare and Medicaid. The percentages reflect Medicaid payments in proportion to Medicare payments.

This information and the accompanying full-text visual aids were drawn from the following source:

"Equal Pay for Equal Work? Not for Medicaid Doctors," Public Citizen, September.

[...]

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