Amid R.I. primary care crisis, Governor McKee unveils $5m plan to recruit, retain doctors
Yet, nearly 25,000 adult and pediatric patients were informed that their doctor's office, Anchor Medical Associates, would be shutting down this year. That's on top of the
Get Rhode Island News Alerts
Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
Related
:
Advertisement
In response to Anchor's impending closure, McKee said he plans to file a budget amendment to accelerate a proposed review of primary care provider rates. Under this review, rate increases, which have been advocated for by patients and health care executives for years, may not be enacted until July 1, 2027, according to Kristen Pono Sousa, the state's director of Medicaid.
'I don't think primary care in Rhode Island has two years to wait,' said David Gellis, a primary care physician and the CEO of
Advertisement
The governor said a data analysis would need to be completed in order for the state's Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner to recommend rate increases for primary care providers. However, organizations such as the
'Share the data with us,' said McKee. 'I haven't seen it.'
Governor Dan McKee on Tuesday released a modest plan with short- and long-term solutions to assist Rhode Island's struggling primary care system.
Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
Even with higher reimbursement rates, patients in neighboring Massachusetts are still traveling out of state to find care, and
Responding to McKee, some Rhode Island state officials voiced concerns that waiting another two years to raise provider rates could lead to further problems in the state's health care landscape.
McKee is 'hanging his hat on promises of future studies and reviews, demonstrating a deep misunderstanding of the issues at hand,' said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha in a statement Tuesday.
Advertisement
Arches Medical has taken on at least 2,000 of Anchor Medical's patients, Gellis told the Globe, and is offering jobs to some of Anchor's providers. But it's a costly endeavor for practices, he said.
McKee also announced Tuesday
that the state would provide $5 million in grants for primary care practices, to support the recruitment and retention of providers and increase 'access and capacity' to serve patients. Interested practices can receive a maximum of $375,000 each. Applications are due May 16.
'If that gets into people's hands quickly, that will be significant in the short,' said Gellis. When asked how quickly his practice would need to receive those funds to help bridge a gap, Gellis said, 'Now.'
Neronha, who has been increasingly critical of McKee on health care issues, called the grant program 'incremental' and 'vaguely defined,' saying that it will pay administrative costs 'rather than increasing reimbursement to primary care physicians.'
Anchor Medical has been in business for 25 years, employs 22 providers and had offices Lincoln, Providence, and Warwick. State officials said they did not know how many patients had successfully found a new provider, citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or
Despite Anchor's 'positive reputation' and diverse payer mix between public and private payers, Secretary Richard Charest, who oversees the R.I. Executive Office of Health and Human Services, said Anchor's closure was 'primarily due to internal operational challenges.' When asked for more information by a Globe reporter, Charest said only, 'they had no liquidity in the end
."
Advertisement
McKee also filed a budget amendment to require hospitals, nursing facilities, health care centers, behavioral health clinics, large physician practices and other providers to submit quarterly financial reports to the state. He said these reports will create an 'early warning system' that will allow the state to solve issues with financially troubled health care organizations 'before they reach the point of no return.'
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
24 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
What is the Congressional Budget Office? And why is it a target of Trump?
The budget office also projected that by 2034, 10.9 million more people would be uninsured, due to proposed spending cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Related : The bill now Advertisement In the weeks ahead of the CBO's analysis, the White House and Republican leaders have criticized the budget office in an effort to sow doubt in its findings. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Here's what to know about the nonpartisan agency and what the Trump administration has said about it: What is the CBO? The CBO is a nonpartisan agency that helps lawmakers estimate the cost of proposed legislation and provides reports on federal spending. It's led by a director appointed by Congress to a four-year term, with the selection alternating between the House and Senate Budget Committee chairs. The CBO emphasizes that political affiliation plays no role in its hiring process, stating it selects candidates 'solely on the basis of his or her fitness to perform the duties of the position.' Advertisement Is the CBO partisan? CBO hires analysts based on their expertise, not political affiliation. Staff is expected to maintain objectivity and avoid political influence. In evaluating potential employees, the CBO says that for most positions it looks at whether that person would be perceived to be free from political bias. Like other federal employees, the CBO's staff is also prohibited from making political contributions to members of Congress. The CBO's director, Phillip Swagel, served in former Republican President George W. Bush's administration as an economic adviser and as an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department. What has the CBO said in the past about Trump policy? The budget office said in April 2018, during Trump's first term, that tax receipts would reach $27 trillion from fiscal years 2018 to 2024. However, receipts came in about $1.5 trillion higher than the CBO projected and Republican lawmakers have seized on that discrepancy since then. The CBO later reported that revenues were higher than expected because of the 'burst of inflation' during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. There was also an increase in economic activity in 'the later years of the period' adding $700 billion. Also, new tariffs added about $250 billion, with other legislation partially offsetting those factors. What Trump and his allies have said about the agency Ahead of the CBO's analysis, Trump slammed the agency in a 'The Democrat inspired and 'controlled' Congressional Budget Office (CBO) purposefully gave us an EXTREMELY LOW level of Growth, 1.8% over 10 years,' Trump wrote. 'I predict we will do 3, 4, or even 5 times the amount they purposefully 'allotted' to us (1.8 percent) and, with just our minimum expected 3 percent growth, we will more than offset our tax cuts (which will, in actuality, cost us no money!),' Trump added. Advertisement In an 'The CBO sometimes gets projections correct, but they're always off every single time when they project economic growth,' Johnson told NBC News. '[The CBO] always underestimate the growth that will be brought about by tax cuts and reduction in regulations,' Johnson added. At a Alyssa Vega can be reached at
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Budget office warns 10.9 million in U.S. could lose health care under Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill'
The non-partisan office that scores the cost of legislation on Capitol Hill warned that more than 10.9 million people could lose their health coverage if President Donald Trump's proposed 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' act passes. The Congressional Budget Office, the non-partisan office that evaluates the effects of bills being debated, released its comprehensive report on the overall impacts of the legislation, which the House of Representatives passed late last month. The audit found that under the bill, 10.9 million people in the U.S. would lose their health insurance. Of that number, 7.8 million people would lose their Medicaid coverage. Under the original legislation, Republicans required that states would have to determine whether someone is eligible for Medicaid every six months and that able-bodied adults without dependent children would have to work, participate in a community service or in an education program for a minimum of 80 hours per month. But conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus objected to the fact that work requirements would not go into place until 2029. In a closed-door agreement, Republican leadership changed the bill so that the work requirements would go into place in late 2026. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has said that nobody would be affected by losing their health care except for able-bodied men playing video games, and immigrants who came to the country illegally. But the legislation said that only 1.4 million undocumented immigrants would lose their coverage. In addition, the legislation would also slash the number of people who receive their coverage under the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obama Care for the law that former president Barack Obama signed in 2010 — by 1.3 million. Republicans have pushed back on scoring from the CBO, saying in the past, the office has underestimated the net positive impacts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the tax legislation that Trump signed in his first term. The changes in health care come as House Republicans tried to slash spending to pay for an extension of the tax cuts that expire at the end of the year. In addition, Republicans plan to increase spending to enforce immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, oil drilling and the U.S. military. But the CBO warned that the legislation would explode the debt. The analysis found that the bill would reduce tax revenue by about $3.7 trillion over the next 10 years. It would also increase the debt by $2.4 trillion between 2025 and 2034. The Senate is now debating how much to change the legislation. With only 53 seats, Republicans plan to pass the bill through a process called reconciliation, which would allow them to sidestep a filibuster from Democrats as long as the legislation relates to the budget. Republicans can afford to lose only three senators, which allow for Vice President JD Vance to break a tie. But the legislation hit a snag after former Trump adviser and Tesla CEO Elon Musk slammed the bill on X, the social media platform he purchased in 2022, calling the 'massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill' a 'digusting abomination.' Johnson for his part pushed back on Musk's words during his weekly press conference on Wednesday. 'I called Elon last night, he didn't answer,' he told reporters. 'I'm not upset about this. I think he understands, and he's acknowledged to me before that this is so serious that we can't fool around with it.' Democrats for their part have sought to make hay out of the cuts to Medicaid in their messaging ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, hoping that it can help them win back the House of Representatives. But Johnson said it would not hurt Republicans. 'But am I concerned about the effect of this on the midterms? I'm not,' he said. ' Let me tell you why, because when the big, beautiful bill is done and signed into law, every single American is going to do better.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Urban farm opens in DC's Ward 8 giving families access to fresh produce
WASHINGTON () — Organizers in D.C., are working to ensure residents in the heart of Ward 8 have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. On Tuesday, community leaders cut the ribbon on a new urban farm at the Washington View Apartments in the Southeast community. Organizers said the new project aims to give families access to produce and provide a way to address chronic diseases. 'Food is medicine, so this farm adds value to the market that is now open to add fresh produce that helps address food insecurities in this area,' said Perina Gaines, the President of , DC Chapter. 25K+ DC residents could lose Medicaid. Now what? Here's what you can do. With only one full-service grocery store in Ward 8, the farm is just one part of a seven-figure investment to address social determinants of health for 2,500 residents who live at Washington View Apartments. The new farm also has a free food pantry that provides thousands of produce to the community. 'This is a way to address that larger food desert east of the river and really remove barriers for a healthier outcome,' emphasized Scott Katz, Executive President of . Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
