Doctors already worried about expiration of higher Medicaid rates

The Affordable Care Act raised Medicaid reimbursement rates for doctors, but the federal government will pay for the increase only through the end of this year. Doctors and hospitals in Washington are already worried about what that will mean for them financially – and for Medicaid patients if doctors can’t afford to see them. The ACA included a provision to bring the rate that doctors are paid for Medicaid up to Medicare levels, which are considerably higher than Medicaid rates but lower than…