November 8, 2023

It's Time for Action on Unsustainable Medicaid Payments

This week, the WSMA sent an action alert to Washington's physician community encouraging physicians, clinics, and medical groups to share stories with their legislators of how low Medicaid reimbursements, particularly for specialty care, impact their practices and patient access to care. If you haven't yet shared your perspective, do so today.

The WSMA is working on a solution that will help draw down federal dollars and increase Medicaid rates across the board for the physician community. We will have more information on our proposal in the weeks ahead. The WSMA will be engaging stakeholders from across the health care spectrum-specialty societies, medical groups, county medical societies, clinics, systems, and more-to mobilize on this issue in anticipation of the state legislative session that begins in January. The state is long overdue in making needed investments to ensure that Medicaid patients have access to not only health coverage, but also health care. This can't wait.

How you can help with our Medicaid effort

While WSMA staff will be working hard to advocate on your behalf with legislators and in the media, there is no substitute for the expertise and perspective of those physicians, practices, and clinics witnessing "on the ground" how low Medicaid reimbursements are impacting their ability to provide care to their patients. Your experiences and knowledge of your community can be invaluable to local legislators and media-and may change minds.

If you'd like to help with this effort, visit our campaign page to volunteer. WSMA staff will be in touch with more information about how you can help.