A medical group said Wednesday the Rio Grande Valley could lose $240 million because of a change in Medicaid funding.
Universal Health Services, which includes McAllen Medical Center and Edinburg Regional Medical Center, gathered at the Texas State Capitol on Wednesday.
They argued against a move to allow managed care, or Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), to administer Medicaid on behalf of the state.
HMOs have been operating in urban areas of Texas for some years, but Cameron and Hidalgo counties have been exempt.
"If you look at the markets where it has been introduced, markets like Houston, Dallas, El Paso, they have come into those markets, they have been very disruptive to those markets initially," explained Doug Matney of South Texas Health Systems. "There's been a lot of disruption to the individual patients, to the patient and the physician relationship."
Some lawmakers from other parts of the state are trying to get a change in the state budget to include Cameron and Hidalgo counties.
This story comes from our media partner, Rio Grande Guardian.
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