Doctors and other medical professionals could be in line for a pay hike under Governor Jay Nixon's plan to expand Medicaid eligibility in Missouri.
Nixon's budget plan outlined this past week includes $908 million of federal money to add nearly 260,000 lower-income adults to the Medicaid rolls under provisions of President Barack Obama's health care law.
Figures provided to The Associated Press by Nixon's budget office show that nearly $82 million of that money is a result of a proposal to increase the reimbursement rates for medical providers who treat those newly added patients. Under the plan, the state would pay rates similar to private insurance instead of the typically lower rates paid by Medicaid.
Nixon's administration says the intent is to entice more doctors to accept Medicaid patients.