Official Statement on Special Session/Medicaid Funding

Sept. 7, 2016 – The Medical Association of the State of Alabama would like to thank the members of the Alabama House of Representatives and Senate who supported the passage of the BP legislation today, which will provide much needed additional funding for Alabama Medicaid. We are pleased that our lawmakers have worked together for a solution for FY 2017 as well as providing additional funds for FY 2018. We are hopeful this additional funding will allow physician practices that were forced to lay off individuals to resume normal operations and continue to provide access to care to their Medicaid patients.

“Alabama already runs the most bare-bones Medicaid program in the country,” said Medical Association of the State of Alabama Executive Director Mark Jackson. “Without this additional funding, the cuts that Medicaid had implemented beginning Aug. 1, would have been dangerous to the infrastructure our state’s health care system. This additional funding will provide some stability to the system which covers more than half the births in Alabama, 47 percent of our children, and 60 percent of our nursing home residents.”