The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
KFF’s policy research provides facts and analysis on a wide range of policy issues and public programs.
KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the organization’s core operating programs.
This infographic highlights Medicaid’s role for seniors. It includes information about the senior population and highlights Medicaid’s role in increasing access to and financing treatment, particularly for long-term care. It also discusses the potential impact of proposals to limit federal Medicaid financing.
This report provides information on recent trends in nursing facilities in the United States, drawing on data from the federal On-line Survey, Certification, and Reporting system (OSCAR) and more recent Certification and Survey Provider Enhanced Reports (CASPER). We use these databases to provide information on nursing facility characteristics, resident characteristics, facility staffing, and deficiencies by state from 2009 through 2015. This data enables policymakers and the public to monitor and understand recent changes in nursing…
This issue brief analyzes the percentage and characteristics of facilities that would meet the rule’s proposed requirements for the minimum number of RN and nurse aide hours to better understand the implications of the rule.
KFF analysis found that over one-fifth of all U.S. COVID-19 deaths occurred in long-term care facilities despite but as of January 14th, 2024, only 38% of residents and 15% of staff were “up-to-date” with their COVID-19 vaccines, which the CDC defines as having received the updated Fall 2023 vaccine. Those rates are lower than uptake was for the 2022 vaccine.
Fewer nursing facility residents and staff are getting COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new KFF analysis of federal data. Only 38% of residents and 15% of staff have received the latest vaccine. In comparison, 50% of residents and 22% of staff received updated vaccines in 2022 and 87% of residents and 88% of staff completed the initial vaccination series. The percentage of residents who received the latest COVID-19 vaccine varies by state and type of…
In 45 states, fewer than half of nursing facilities currently meet all three staffing minimums required in the final federal rule that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released in April, and in 28 states, less than a quarter do, according to a new KFF analysis. The share of facilities that meet these requirements ranges from 5% or lower in four states (AR, TN, TX and LA) to 50% or higher in five…
In response to long-standing workforce challenges in home- and community-based services, states have reported increasing Medicaid payment rates, providing more education and training or leveraging other strategies to recruit and retain workers.
Today, KFF Health News and The New York Times published the first phase of an investigation into America’s long-term care crisis, which has left many in the boomer generation facing the prospect of exhausting their financial resources as the price tag for care explodes. Dying Broke, the investigative series, uses KFF polling, original analysis and interviews with experts and impacted individuals and their families to examine the challenges facing families and caregivers in navigating long-term…
This data note provides new information about waiting lists from KFF’s most recent survey of state Medicaid HCBS programs, including a discussion of why waiting lists are an incomplete measure of unmet need and why they are not necessarily comparable across states or over time.
Long-term care (LTC) in the United States has evolved over the course of the last century to better serve the needs of seniors and person with disabilities. This long-term care timeline outlines the major milestones in LTC from the nursing home era, which created an institutional bias in LTC, to the era of home and community based services (HCBS) and integration, and into the era of health reform and beyond.
© 2026 KFF