Medicaid can be fixed with coordinated care, ACP says

Coordinated primary care should be at the center of any Medicaid reform, according to the American College of Physicians (ACP).

In a position paper released at Internal Medicine 2011, the college's annual scientific meeting, ACP says that Medicaid eligibility standards should be uniform on a national basis and emphasize quality care over volume-based care and should provide more options for patients to meet their long-term care needs. The paper also advocates making fees the same as Medicare reimbursements so that doctors will accept more Medicaid patients.

"Like the healthcare system as a whole, Medicaid needs to be improved to emphasize preventive and primary care," says J. Fred Ralston Jr., MD, ACP president. "The need for the program is even more elevated as we've seen during the recent recession when more people have been forced to rely on the Medicaid system for coverage."