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The federal government continues to focus on addressing fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicaid, with much of the attention focused on home care services. This issue brief provides new information about Medicaid home care programs’ use of program integrity tools, based on findings from KFF’s 50-state survey of Medicaid home care program officials.
In all years since 2016, there have been at least 0.5 million people on waiting lists or interest lists for Medicaid home care, with a total of almost 650,000 in 2026. This data note provides new information about these waiting lists based on findings from KFF’s 50-state survey of Medicaid home care program officials.
This brief describes recent HHS actions (state-specific and nationwide) related to Medicaid program integrity and outlines some open questions about the future of Medicaid program integrity, including which states might become a focus of administration effort.
Medicaid represents $1 out of every $5 spent on health care in the U.S. and is the major source of financing for states to provide health coverage and long-term services and supports for low-income residents. This brief examines key questions about Medicaid financing and how it works.
This issue brief describes how Medicaid home care operates—including who is eligible and the systems in place to promote program integrity in its delivery—and the challenges of using new CMS data to identify unusual billing patterns or potential fraud in the program.
On February 14, 2026, CMS released a dataset with provider-level spending data that the agency suggests could be used to identify unusual billing patterns for specific services, states, or providers. This policy watch describes what the data include, what they exclude, and how they could potentially lead to mistaken conclusions given the limitations of the data.
This policy watch discusses the implications for the U.S. health care workforce of the recent DOS immigrant visa pause for individuals from 75 countries deemed more likely to be a public charge.
In this brief on Medicaid issues to watch for 2026, KFF explores how state fiscal pressures are likely to converge with the implementation of the 2025 reconciliation law to affect Medicaid coverage, financing, and access to care over the next year, especially leading up to the midterm elections.
This brief describes current state fiscal conditions as states begin fiscal year 2027 budget debates and highlights key areas to watch for Medicaid policy changes as states respond to fiscal challenges and the 2025 reconciliation law.
© 2026 KFF
