title: Medicaid physician payment reform: using the Medicare Fee Schedule for Medicaid payments.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this article is to provide estimates of the costs of basing Medicaid physician payment levels on the new resource-based Medicare Fee Schedule. Two possible policy options are considered: setting all Medicaid physician fees at the Medicare Fee Schedule level and setting only office visit fees at the new Medicare levels.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data on Medicaid physician fees, use patterns, and the Medicare Fee Schedule are used to develop state-level estimates of expenditure changes under each option.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Setting Medicaid rates at the Medicare Fee Schedule level could increase expenditures by $3.2 to $4.1 billion nationally; the other option would result in substantially lower increases in expenditures. Because of the current variations in Medicaid physician fees and in the breadth of eligibility across states, the cost of adopting the Medicare Fee Schedule varies considerably among states.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adopting the new Medicare Fee Schedule for Medicaid payments, proposed by policy-makers as a way to increase access to appropriate medical care, could double physician expenditures in some states. Adoption of more limited versions of the fee schedule might achieve some access gains at lower costs.
authors.affiliation: School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Reisinger
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Colby
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schwartz
mesh_terms: D005245:Fee Schedules; D005251:Fees, Medical; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D008484:Medicaid / Q000191:economics*; D015442:Medicare Assignment / Q000191:economics*; D009819:Office Visits / Q000191:economics; D011050:Policy Making; D014481:United States