Essential Health Benefits: Balancing Affordability and Adequacy February 3, 2012 Event Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), insurance plans offered through state insurance exchanges as well as non-grandfathered plans offered in the individual and small group markets – will be required to cover a set of health benefits and services called the “essential health benefits” package. Guidance issued…
Medicaid and Managed Care: Key Data, Trends, and Issues February 1, 2012 Issue Brief This brief provides a snapshot of the Medicaid program’s use of managed care to deliver services to beneficiaries. It examines the prevalence of managed care in state Medicaid programs; the various approaches states have used, including primary-care case management; managed care for long-term services and for beneficiaries dually eligible for…
Medicaid Enrollment and Expenditures by Federal Core Requirements and State Options January 1, 2012 Issue Brief To receive federal Medicaid matching funds, states that participate in Medicaid must meet federal requirements, which include covering specified “federal core” enrollee groups and mandatory health benefits. States also may choose to cover additional “state expansion” enrollees and optional benefits with federal Medicaid matching funds. The federal core eligibility standards…
Update: State Budgets in Recession and Recovery October 1, 2011 Issue Brief State revenues have been rebounding after experiencing a severe decline caused by the Great Recession that ran from December 2007 through June 2009. Nevertheless, tax collections remain below their 2008 peak level and state and local governments continue to shed jobs. As states prepare their fiscal year 2013 budgets, some…
Impact of the Medicaid Fiscal Relief Provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) October 1, 2011 Issue Brief The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), enacted in February 2009, has provided $103 billion in federal fiscal relief to state Medicaid programs over a period of two-and-a-half years to help them address the effects of the 2007-2009 recession. During a recession, unemployment increases and state revenues decline, making it…
An Overview of Changes in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAPs) for Medicaid July 1, 2011 Issue Brief The joint federal-state financing of the Medicaid program works through a matching mechanism known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP). This mechanism determines the federal and state shares of Medicaid costs based on a state’s per capita personal income relative to the national average. While the FMAP formula has…
Five Key Questions And Answers About Section 1115 Medicaid Waivers June 30, 2011 Issue Brief This issue brief provides an overview of what Section 1115 Medicaid waivers are, how they are approved and financed, how states have used them, and how they are impacted by health reform. For many years, Section 1115 waivers have been used by states to test new coverage approaches not otherwise…
Enhanced Medicaid Match Rates Expire in June 2011 June 1, 2011 Fact Sheet This fact sheet discusses the role played by the enhanced federal Medicaid matching funds available to states through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), and the implications for state Medicaid programs as that extra assistance expires June 30, 2011. States used the ARRA enhanced Medicaid funding to…
Medicaid Financing Issues: Provider Taxes May 2, 2011 Fact Sheet Current law allows states to use revenue from provider taxes to help fund the state share of spending on Medicaid, a program that is jointly financed by the states and the federal government. Almost all states have at least one provider tax in place. This issue brief reviews the use…
Implications Of A Federal Block Grant Program For Medicaid April 1, 2011 Issue Brief This issue brief examines the broad implications of converting Medicaid to block grant financing, one of several ideas that have been put forth to help reduce the federal deficit. The paper, which does not analyze any specific proposal, notes that switching to block grant financing would fundamentally alter the Medicaid…