A group of physicians has filed aclass-action lawsuit against the state and contractors who launched a new computer program designed to reimburse health care providers for serving Medicaid patients.
The suit seeks millions of dollars in damages. The plaintiffs say they haven't been reimbursed properly for serving those patients. As a result, they say their practices have suffered severe financial losses. Camden Webb is their attorney.
"These doctors are being put in the position of making the very painful choice of deciding to no longer to accept Medicaid patients. One of our clients has had to make that very decision, that the financial impact of NC Tracks has caused them to no longer take new Medicaid patients as of January first," says Webb.
The lawsuit says the launch of the system, known as NC Tracks, was a disaster. And it says the software is riddled with errors. Every medical procedure and drug should have a code that allows doctors to be reimbursed. But physicians found that some crucial drugs and procedures weren't coded, so they could not get reimbursed by the state.
The head of the NC Tracks system has said he can't comment on pending litigation.