One of the joys of Dr. Sumana Reddy’s job as a family medicine doctor is seeing patients of all ages and walks of life.
Reddy runs a private practice with a couple of locations in Monterey County, and her patients include Salinas’ farmworkers, newborns, government workers, school teachers, and even some patients she delivered many years ago.
About 20% of her patients are covered by Medi-Cal, the state’s insurance program for low-income people. Ideally, she’d like to serve even more Medi-Cal patients, but the program’s low reimbursement rates have for many years limited how many of those patients she can see to break even. She enjoys treating patients, but she also has a business to run.
Now, recent investments in the state’s Medi-Cal program, including a newly proposed pay boost for primary care providers and others, is renewing Reddy’s excitement about the program. “It’s always been a juggle to accept the amount of Medi-Cal that will keep us solvent, basically,” Reddy said. “As the state makes commitments to support Medi-Cal, we can continue to expand the patients that we take.”
How much of an impact this particular reimbursement increase will actually have on patients’ access to care remains to be seen. But policy experts and providers say it’s a promising signal for a crucial program that provides health coverage for more than 15 million Californians.
Dr. Sumana Reddy…
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