LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — One Las Vegas therapy provider, Emily Swogger, came to talk to Channel 13 at the latest Let’s Talk community event.
On Monday, Channel 13 went to her office where between 80 and 85 pediatric clients get speech, occupational and physical therapy services.
WATCH | Mary Kielar heard more about her worries and how she's trying to stay open:
Each week, Swogger explained, Medicaid reimbursement payments come in, as 90% of her clients’ services are covered in some way by the federal program.
She said she relies on Medicaid “to keep the lights on, pay rent, pay the employees, and pay into their 401(k)s.”
Right now, she’s not sure when she’ll see her next check. Her revalidation application for her Medicaid provider contract is still pending online, which means it’s not active.
The backlog, Swogger believes, is being compounded by a temporary pause on all new provider Medicaid contracts nationwide. That’s part of an effort to combat fraud in the home health and hospice industry.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo backs that federal push here in Nevada. During the 2025 legislative session, the position of Medicaid Inspector General was created within the Nevada Health Authority.
A spokesperson for the NVHA told Channel 13 this moratorium only impacts new providers who are looking to start a contract with Medicaid, and not providers already in the system like Swogger.
“It’s really imperative that they get a handle on this,” she said Monday. Adding, “there has to be some sort of change for this program that has really great intentions. It’s just the follow-through and the way that it’s actually being presented; it’s flawed.”
Still, she said she’d be told over the phone to continue to provide those services usually reimbursed by Medicaid while she’s technically working with a lapsed contract.
“We’re going to continue to see these patients,” she said, with the hope that the application will be approved soon. “Everything will be backdated and backlogged.”
Meanwhile, Swogger is exploring all of her options to stay open for her patients and her employees. She’s considering what she can scrape from her personal savings account and whether she’d need a small business loan to stay afloat.
Either way, she said if she had to close, it’s likely she may never open back up.
Channel 13 did reach out to Lombardo’s office for comment, and a spokesperson responded, referring us back to the response from the Nevada Health Authority.
