Medicaid

On KFF’s 21st annual Medicaid budget survey, all responding states reported at least one initiative to expand behavioral health care in Medicaid, including crisis service and other benefit expansions, initiatives to expand telehealth and address equity, and managed care changes.

Enrollment in Medicaid has grown significantly during the pandemic in large part due to the continuous enrollment requirement that prevents states from disenrolling people during the public health emergency (PHE). However, with the end of the PHE expected this year, states will resume processing redeterminations and millions of people could…

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.

This brief reviews what we know about Medicaid enrollment changes during economic downturns, examines unemployment-linked Medicaid enrollments early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, and considers the implications for the unwinding of the national public health emergency (PHE).

On January 26, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved California’s Section 1115 request to cover a package of reentry services for certain groups of incarcerated individuals 90 days prior to release. This approval is the first to include a partial waiver of the statutory Medicaid inmate exclusion policy, which prohibits Medicaid from paying for services provided during incarceration (except for inpatient services).

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven record rises in Medicaid enrollment and substantial increases in total Medicaid spending. The forthcoming end of the Public Health Emergency — and the subsequent unwinding of additional federal funding for Medicaid and the requirement for continuous coverage — are expected to increase state costs and…

A KFF synthesis of recent studies finds that Medicaid expansion has been beneficial to the finances of hospitals and providers, driving decreases in the share of uninsured patients, increases in Medicaid-covered patients and declines in uncompensated care. By financing coverage for low-income people who are likely to otherwise be uninsured,…

This issue brief updates prior KFF literature reviews by summarizing 24 studies published between April 2021 and December 2022 on the economic impact of Medicaid expansion on providers.

Medicaid enrollment increased since the start of the pandemic, primarily due to the continuous enrollment provision. KFF estimates that between 8 million and 24 million people will lose Medicaid coverage during the unwinding of the continuous enrollment provision. The Medicaid continuous enrollment provision stopped “churn” among Medicaid enrollees. States approaches…

As states begin to unwind the COVID emergency continuous enrollment provision and resume Medicaid disenrollments, early data from a handful of states – highlighted on KFF’s regularly-updated Medicaid Enrollment and Unwinding Tracker — reveal wide variation in disenrollment rates.