Even so, expansion will mean getting more patients into preventive care, and a reduction in emergency department visits and more expensive hospital care – costs that are being borne by all Texans, including physicians, said Dr. Hawkins, who is program director of the San Jacinto Methodist Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program in Baytown, Texas.
Although uninsured Texas residents are already receiving care – in emergency departments and at clinics – Medicaid expansion could bring a big uptick in office visits, especially to ob.gyn. practices, Dr. Hampton said. The need for those services is growing with a state law that went into effect on Oct. 29 that makes it prohibitive for most Planned Parenthood clinics and other community clinics that provide abortion services to stay open.
"What that’s done is cut out a very large group of providers, and now we’re trying to find providers to help take care of those folks," who normally use those clinics, she said.
In the absence of Medicaid expansion, Texas physicians are hoping to start receiving higher Medicaid payments that were due to start in Jan. 2013. An estimated 25,000 Texas doctors are eligible for Medicaid pay that will be on par with Medicare. But Texas has not begun to distribute that money and will not likely do so until March, according to the TMA.