Attorney General Neronha urges state leadership to fund Medicaid reimbursement

Published on Friday, May 09, 2025

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha today issued the following statement in response to the announcement that Providence Community Health Centers will lay off 10% of its workforce due to low reimbursement rates.

“Yesterday’s news about significant layoffs at Providence Community Health Centers is as alarming as it is unsurprising. It’s quite simple really: our health care system will continue to collapse unless state leadership invests and raises Medicaid reimbursement rates to support the financial needs of Rhode Island health care practices. And to be clear, this latest hit to our health care system could not have been predicted by quarterly financial reports. Providence Community Health Centers is a well-respected, critically important organization, and yet, they are struggling to survive; the latest victim in this state’s unwillingness to address reimbursement rates. What’s infuriating is that we know what the problem is, and we know how to fix it, but instead we are rolling out modest health care grants and commissioning more studies. Rhode Islanders deserve quality, affordable, and accessible health care, and state leadership is failing to deliver it.

“I urge the General Assembly to support increases in the state budget for Medicaid reimbursement. It’s not too late yet. But it almost is.”

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