Massachusetts hospitals will be cutting back on elective procedures starting in September in response to a recent cut in Medicaid reimbursement, the Boston Globe reports.
The decline is the first result of the state’s failure to pass the 2019 budget by July 1, leaving it $83 million short in funding and leaving health care providers — who were ready to settle for a cut of 1 percent — frustrated and angry.
According to hospital executives, doctors and advocates, the cuts will primarily impact elective lab tests and surgeries that aren’t medically required but they don’t want to turn away patients who need them. Emergency room visits and hospital stays will remain unchanged.
“There’s this feeling of anger and letdown,” Lisa Fitzgerald, president of the Massachusetts chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said in an interview with the Globe. “It just bothers me because people are getting hurt and when they go to the ER, our ability to wait a little bit for someone to arrive is now removed.”
Read the full story at The Boston Globe.
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