I am an emergency physician caring for a large population of uninsured and underinsured patients in Alexandria, VA. Practicing emergency medicine in Virginia for the past 10 years, I have realized that it is very difficult for my patients to determine what is or isn’t an emergency. It can sometimes be difficult for me to determine what is or isn’t an emergency without the aid of tests available in my department. For example, abdominal pain can be as benign as constipation or as serious as a rupturing abdominal aortic aneurysm. Tingling in one’s hand could be as benign as having an anxiety attack or as serious as a disabling stroke. Expecting our patients to figure this out on their own is foolish. For this reason, I don’t believe it is right to punish emergency providers for a patient seeking care for what they perceive to be an emergency.

Medicaid reimbursement is critical for staffing our emergency departments. Cutting Medicaid funding will further stress my group’s ability to provide excellent care to Virginians in these very difficult times. Please halt implementation of the ER utilization program. Ensure that we can continue to provide Virginians the care they deserve!

-Austin Reynolds, MD