Doctors in pricey San Francisco have a decided financial advantage over their peers in equally expensive Honolulu when it comes to treating elderly patients insured by Medicare. The feds pay San Francisco doctors a lot more for exactly the same office visit.
Now, thanks to the recent One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Hawaiʻi doctors soon will face the same disadvantage when they’re treating low-income people served by Medicaid — despite promised funding from the Legislature to shore up Medicaid payments.
The result is an impending financial cliff that could significantly impede access to health care for more than a quarter of the state’s population, including many of its most vulnerable residents.
Medicare providers already have been feeling the pain of reimbursement rates that fail to account for Hawaiʻi’s high cost of living, putting a strain on doctors and hospitals that care for elderly Medicare patients, said Dr. Jack Lewin, administrator of Hawaiʻi’s Health Planning and Development Agency…