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Javier Saenz, MD, is a Rio Grande Valley family medicine physician who cares for many of these patients. They make up about half of his practice. Since January he’s treated these patients as always, but has received no Medicare payments and very little in payments from Texas through Medicaid. As a result he is exhausting personal savings and turning to bank loans to make payroll and keep his medical practice open to serve his patients. He doesn't know how long he can hold out.
“If all I see are my most needy patients I can’t stay in business,” Dr. Saenz told the Texas Medical Association. “If I can’t stay in business then I can’t help anybody.”
Dr. Saenz is not alone. Physicians who care for dual-eligible patients in poor communities from rural Texas to inner cities are caught in this vise.
UPDATE: Texas' dual-eligible emergency makes headlines
- State Cuts Squeezing the Elderly Poor and Their Doctors - The New York Times, in partnership with The Texas Tribune
- VIDEO: TMA visits Valley to do a story on physician funding crisis - Rio Grande Guardian
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