Arizona’s Medicaid program cancels 5 percent provider cuts

Arizona’s Medicaid program has canceled a planned 5 percent cut in payments to hospitals, doctors and other medical professionals after they objected and lower than expected insurance costs gave the program leeway to avoid the cuts. The decision came just three months after the governor signed a plan for the budget year that begins July 1 that projected $37 million in savings from the cuts in the first year. Hospitals complained at the time that they and other providers could also lose additional millions in federal matching funds. Providers flooded the agency with comments, virtually all opposed to the cuts.