Doctors Complain About Medicaid Program Revamp

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Some of the state's major private pediatric clinics are opposing the Jindal administration's reworking of a Medicaid program for children.

The program, called

, pays doctors an extra fee for managing the care of the children they see. The fee they get depends on if they meet certain medical standards of care.

Changes to the program for children of low-income families went into effect January 1st.

Clinic administrators told The Advocate they have no problem with the "pay for performance" feature of the program. But they say Medicaid officials haven't given them enough information to fully assess the financial impact of the changes required by the new program.

Doctor Rodney Wise, medical director of the Louisiana Medicaid program, says the changes reward quality. He says the doctors shouldn't be panicky about the reworked program.