Medical office visit: $16.
Teeth cleaning: $20.
Those rates are what's prompting doctors, dentists and other providers to stage a rally Tuesday at the state capitol.
A coalition of health providers called We Care for California is calling on state lawmakers to increase the Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal reimbursement rates. Coalition members complain Medi-Cal pays one of the lowest Medicaid rates in the nation.
Leticia Carrion, a nurse practitioner at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside, is going to the rally. She says low rates are causing a growing number of doctors and dentists to stop treating new Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal patients. And that, she said, puts patients in a tough spot.
“I talk to their families, I talk to the patients," she said. "They’re in a place where they feel left out. Nobody cares about them.”
Medi-Cal officials maintain they’re keeping an eye on the situation to make sure there’s adequate access to care.
