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This brief describes five key takeaways from CMS's Notice of Funding Opportunity for the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program. It includes information about how CMS intends to review state applications and distribute funds and ongoing questions about the impact on rural hospitals, the distribution of funds across rural hospitals and states, and issues related to oversight and transparency.
To provide historical context for how changes to Medicaid spending may impact national health spending trends, this brief explores how Medicaid spending contributes to national health spending and how different service areas contribute to Medicaid costs.
This analysis examines the recent growth of Medicare Advantage as a share of hospital inpatient days. Medicare Advantage rose from 13% to 25% of all inpatient days from 2015 to 2023, although there was wide variation among hospitals.
This brief describes the new executive order, examines the intersection of homelessness and mental illness, reviews the history of the deinstitutionalization movement, and discusses specialized treatment services for people with SMI.
This chart collection explores how health spending is expected to grow in coming years, with a look at growth in prescription drug spending, out-of-pocket spending, and related trends.
The new reconciliation law includes a $50 billion rural health fund. This brief describes the rural health fund, explains what the law says about the allocation of funds, and highlights outstanding questions about how the funds will be distributed across and within states to pay rural hospitals and for other purposes.
In his latest Beyond the Data column, KFF President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman examines the controversial rural hospital grant program, noting “Will the new $50 billion rural hospital grant program in the big Republican tax and spending law just amount to a bunch of ribbon cutting and big check ceremonies, or will it help rural hospitals offset coming Medicaid cuts, help them in general, or all of the above?”
In this July 1 column for The New York Times Opinion section, KFF Executive Vice President for Health Policy Larry Levitt explains how the budget reconciliation bill passed by the Senate on July 1 is effectively a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and, if signed into law, the resulting reductions in Medicaid…
The Senate Finance Committee’s reconciliation language would reduce existing state-directed payments to hospitals and nursing facilities over time until they are at or slightly above Medicare rates. This analysis identifies states that might have to reduce payment rates for hospitals or nursing facilities if the language is passed into law.
If Congress passes the reconciliation bill with the Finance Committee provision, 22 states might have to reduce their provider taxes on either hospitals or managed care organizations, cutting a key source of state Medicaid funding in those states. This policy watch explains how the Finance Committee provision would reduce states’ Medicaid spending, and the implications for expansion states.
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