The state will receive $8.8 million in additional Medicaid funding this year from the federal government to pay for care provided by Kansas University faculty physicians and associated outpatient clinics in Kansas City and Wichita, officials announced Monday.

“Ultimately, this additional revenue will allow us to better serve Kansas patients who might otherwise go without care,” said Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor of the KU Medical Center.

The Kansas Health Policy Authority requested a change in the state Medicaid plan to recognize that physicians who teach at the KU School of Medicine serve a large number of Medicaid patients, with reimbursement rates below their actual costs, and that due to their teaching and research responsibilities their losses cannot be offset by higher paying patients.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the federal agency that oversees federal Medicaid spending, recently approved the change.

“The new rate structure is a result of the hospital, university, and the state working together to benefit physicians and their patients,” said Bob Page, president and chief executive officer of the KU Hospital.