How this impacts health equity:
While Medicaid patients will continue to receive care and will never be billed for the difference if the visit is determined to be non-emergent, patients will be impacted because:
How this issue impacts hospitals and health systems: Medicaid reimbursements would be automatically cut to only $14.98 if an ER visit is on the list of “preventable” codes. Such a low reimbursement makes full staffing of a hospital emergency department very precarious, especially in urban and rural areas who typically have high Medicaid populations.