Waivers

This policy watch discusses the new opportunities available to states to address health-related social needs through managed care and through Section 1115 demonstration waivers.

As 2023 kicks off, a number of issues are at play that could affect coverage and financing under Medicaid. This issue brief examines key issues to watch in Medicaid in the year ahead.

About 656,000 people across the country were on state waiting lists for home and community-based services financed through Medicaid waivers in 2021, finds a new KFF analysis. But such waiting lists are an incomplete and often inaccurate measure that can both overstate and understate unmet need. The data about waiting…

This issue brief presents the latest findings on key state policy choices about Medicaid HCBS in 2022 based on the 20th KFF survey of state officials administering Medicaid HCBS programs in all 50 states and DC. The data were collected from April through September 2022. The survey was sent to each state official responsible for overseeing the administration of HCBS benefits (e.g., home health, personal care, and services for specific populations such as people with physical disabilities), but some states submitted responses for the state overall.

This policy watch describes the current landscape of Section 1115 waivers and highlights key issues to watch: the outcome of litigation related to Georgia’s waiver, as well as the Biden Administration’s decisions on pending requests from Tennessee and other states.

In a new brief, KFF analysts explain and summarize the recent history of efforts to make work requirements a condition of eligibility for Medicaid in some states. Following years of administrative, political, and legal activity across two presidential administrations, recent Supreme Court action and skepticism about work requirements by the…

The Trump Administration aimed to reshape the Medicaid program by newly approving Section 1115 demonstration waivers that imposed work and reporting requirements as a condition of Medicaid eligibility. However, courts struck down many of these approvals and the Supreme Court recently dismissed pending challenges in these cases. Available implementation data suggests that work requirements were confusing to enrollees and result in substantial coverage loss, including among eligible individuals.

As California ramps up its CalAIM initiative, the state will incorporate and transition its Whole Person Care pilot program’s services statewide through the state’s Medicaid managed care system. This brief examines the lessons from those pilots in coordinating and integrating physical health, behavioral health, and social services.

The federal government and the states together spent a total of $116 billion on Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) in FY 2020, serving millions of elderly adults and people with disabilities, a new KFF analysis finds. Medicaid is the nation’s primary payer for such services, which include assistive technology,…

This issue brief presents findings on key state policy choices about Medicaid HCBS in FY 2020. This is the latest data available, and the first since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected in KFF’s 19th survey of state officials administering Medicaid HCBS programs in all 50 states and DC. A related brief presents the latest state-level data about the number of people receiving HCBS and HCBS spending