The Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion resulted in unanticipated negative consequences for many patients and physicians in rural, underserved or medically isolated communities across America. Consolidation of health care entities was financially incentivized by the ACA, and slowly my beloved corner of the Pacific Northwest is becoming a medical wasteland.
In a beautiful community on the Olympic Peninsula, just north of where I live and practice, it happened again; another private clinic sold to a large medical corporation. Peninsula Children's Clinic was a bustling pediatric office meeting the vital, complex healthcare needs of children in Port Angeles, WA for the commercially insured as well as Medicaid patients. Why were they forced to close? A phone call with their office manager six months ago foreshadowed the outcome, “We are losing a great deal of revenue seeing Medicaid patients making it difficult to survive.”
