Home Medicaid Topics

Medicaid

Medicaid work requirements

Tracking the 2025 Reconciliation Law’s Medicaid Work Requirements: Data and Policies

To implement Medicaid work requirements, states will need to make important policy and operational decisions, implement needed system upgrades or changes, develop new outreach and education strategies, and hire and train staff, all within a relatively short timeframe. The information tracked here can serve as a resource to understand Medicaid work requirements and state options, gauge readiness, and track implementation of the requirements.

new and noteworthy

understanding medicaid

Medicaid Financing

Medicaid represents $1 out of every $5 spent on health care in the U.S. and is the major source of financing for states to provide health coverage and long-term care. This brief examines key questions about Medicaid financing and how it works.

Medicaid Program Integrity

This brief explains what is known about improper payments and fraud and abuse in Medicaid and describes ongoing state and federal actions to address program integrity.

Medicaid and Provider Taxes

All states except Alaska cover some state Medicaid costs with taxes on health care providers. This brief uses data from KFF’s 2024-2025 survey of Medicaid directors to describe current practices and the federal rules governing them.

Medicaid and Hospitals

Absorbing reductions in Medicaid spending could be challenging for hospitals, particularly for those that are financially vulnerable. This brief provides data on the reach of Medicaid across hospitals, patients, and charity care.

Medicaid Home Care

This issue brief provides an overview of what Medicaid home care (also known as “home- and community-based services”) is, who is covered, and what services were available in 2025.

Latest News

More KFF Health News

Stay informed.

Get KFF's latest on Medicaid

Stay informed.

Get KFF's latest on Medicaid

View the Latest: Medicaid

Filter

List Grid

1,131 - 1,140 of 2,722 Results

  • States Focus on Quality and Outcomes Amid Waiver Changes: Results from a 50-State Medicaid Budget Survey for State Fiscal Years 2018 and 2019

    Report

    This report provides an in-depth examination of the changes taking place in Medicaid programs across the country. Report findings are drawn from the annual budget survey of Medicaid officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This report examines the reforms, policy changes, and initiatives that occurred in FY 2018 and those adopted for implementation for FY 2019 (which began for most states on July 1, 2018). Key areas covered include changes in…

  • Analysis Finds that Medications for Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS Are the Costliest Group of Outpatient Prescription Drugs for Medicaid, While Diabetes Drugs Have Posted the Sharpest Rise in Costs 

    News Release

    Antiviral medications, including those that treat hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS, cost the Medicaid program more money (before rebates) than any other group of outpatient prescription drugs for each year from 2014 to 2017, according to a new KFF analysis. The analysis of utilization and spending trends finds that antivirals accounted for more than 13 percent of the $63.6 billion in Medicaid outpatient drug spending pre-rebates in 2017 -- a level disproportionate to their utilization and…

  • New Brief Examines Potential Changes to Medicaid Long-Term Care “Spousal Impoverishment” Rules

    News Release

    A new brief from KFF (the Kaiser Family Foundation) examines potential changes to “spousal impoverishment” rules in Medicaid that allow married couples to protect a portion of their income and assets should one spouse seek Medicaid coverage for long-term care. A provision of the Affordable Care Act that requires state Medicaid programs to apply such rules to home- and community-based long-term care is set to expire on December 31. That could tip the balance of financial…

  • Medicaid Work Requirements in Arkansas: Experience and Perspectives of Enrollees

    Issue Brief

    This brief presents perspectives of enrollees and safety net providers about Arkansas' new Section 1115 Medicaid waiver work and reporting requirements based on focus groups and interviews. The discussions examine enrollees’ awareness of the new requirements and ability to set up online accounts for monthly reporting; the effect of the new requirements on enrollees’ work and common barriers to work; enrollees’ experience with monthly reporting; impacts on particular populations, such as those with disabilities or…

  • Medicaid Mental Health and Substance Use: Expansion Trends and the Fiscal Pressure Ahead

    Issue Brief

    This brief examines recent state trends in Medicaid behavioral health coverage and payment and state coverage of select treatment models for people with serious mental illness—a population that has historically faced significant barriers to care. This includes details about coverage of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) (as a provider type), Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), and Coordinated Specialty Care for First Episode Psychosis (CSC-FEP).

  • KFF Health Tracking Poll: Public Weighs Health Care Spending and Other Priorities for Incoming Administration

    Feature

    With the incoming Trump administration and Republican-led Congress looking to ways to reduce federal spending, this Poll finds that the Medicare and Medicaid programs remain broadly popular, and more people favor more spending on those programs than less spending. Among potential actions on health, the public sees price transparency and limiting chemicals in food as top priorities. Few say so about cuts to Medicaid and restrictions on abortion.

  • Medicaid Section 1115 Waivers: The Basics

    Issue Brief

    Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waivers offer states an avenue to test new approaches in Medicaid that differ from what is required by federal statute. Nearly all states have at least one active Section 1115 waiver and some states have multiple 1115 waivers. This brief explains what Section 1115 waivers are and how they are used, summarizes key waiver requirements, and outlines the application and approval process.

  • Medicaid 1115 Waiver Watch: Round-up of Key Themes at the End of the Biden Administration

    Issue Brief

    Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waivers offer states an avenue to test new approaches in Medicaid that differ from what is required by federal statute, so long as the approach is likely to “promote the objectives of the Medicaid program.” Waivers generally reflect priorities identified by states as well as changing priorities from one presidential administration to another. The Biden administration encouraged states to propose waivers that expand coverage, reduce health disparities, advance whole-person care, and…