Medicaid

new and noteworthy

An Early Look at States’ Differing Approaches to Implementing Medicaid Work Requirements Amid Cost and Time Constraints and Uncertainty

A new KFF survey of state Medicaid officials and focus groups in eight states captures the different choices states are making about how to implement Medicaid work requirements, with seven states planning for a more restrictive approach to verifying work or exemption status or to implement work requirements early. These implementation plans are taking shape as states encounter time, cost, and other constraints as well as uncertainty about how to define and verify certain exemptions due to delayed federal guidance.

Medicaid Work Requirements

Tracking 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.

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.

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  • Medicaid Eligibility, Enrollment Simplification, and Coordination under the Affordable Care Act: A Summary of CMS’s March 23, 2012 Final Rule

    Issue Brief

    This brief provides a summary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) March 23, 2012 final rule to implement the ACA provisions relating to Medicaid eligibility, enrollment simplification and coordination. The rule, which is effective Jan. 1, 2014, lays out procedures for states to implement the Medicaid expansion and the streamlined and integrated eligibility and enrollment system created under the ACA. Achieving this goal will require substantial process and system changes among state…

  • Quick Take: An Update on the ACA & HIV: Medicaid Health Homes

    Fact Sheet

    We recently wrote about the different ways in which the Affordable Care Act (ACA) changes pathways to health insurance coverage for people with HIV, and chronicled these specifics, as well as several outstanding questions, in a policy brief.  As we noted, among the many provisions of the ACA designed to improve care is a new option available to state Medicaid programs to provide “health homes” for Medicaid enrollees with chronic conditions, with a temporary enhanced…

  • Washington’s Managed FFS Demonstration to Integrate Care and Align Financing for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries

    Issue Brief

    Washington is the first state to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to test a managed fee-for-service (FFS) financial alignment model for beneficiaries who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, beginning on April 1, 2013. Washington’s managed FFS demonstration uses Medicaid health home services to coordinate care for high risk/high cost dual eligible beneficiaries with chronic conditions. This policy brief summarizes key aspects of the…

  • Massachusetts and Washington: Financial Alignment Demonstrations for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries Compared

    Fact Sheet

    This fact sheet examines the similarities and differences between the five-year demonstrations in Massachusetts and Washington state to integrate care and align financing for people dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. The states finalized memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in fall 2012, and the demonstrations in each state are set to begin in April 2013. Fact Sheet (.pdf)

  • Medicaid Expansion Briefing: What’s at Stake for States?

    Event Date:
    Event

    The Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation present a November 30 briefing to discuss the Medicaid expansion and what's at stake for states. Speakers address questions around the potential financial impact of the expansion on states, the role of the federal government in financing the expansion, and what it might mean for providers on the ground level, as well as the effect on the safety net population should states choose to opt…

  • State Fiscal Conditions and Medicaid Program Changes, FY 2012-2013

    Fact Sheet

    The Medicaid program provides health and long-term care coverage for low-income families who lack access to other affordable coverage options and for individuals with disabilities for whom private coverage is often not available or inadequate. Medicaid also plays a pivotal role in state budgets, both as an expenditure and a source of federal revenues. This fact sheet provides a brief overview of Medicaid’s role in state budgets, the impact of the recession, current fiscal conditions,…

  • The News Media and “Entitlement Reform”

    From Drew Altman

    In the coming debate about the deficit, policymakers will struggle to craft a package of spending reductions and new revenues that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on, totaling as much as four trillion dollars over ten years.  Medicare, Medicaid and potentially the Affordable Care Act will have their turn on the operating table as policymakers look for savings.  It is unclear what reductions in Medicare and Medicaid spending policymakers will be able to agree…

  • Report Finds State Costs of Implementing The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid Expansion Would Be Modest Compared to Increases in Federal Funds, and Some States Would See Net Savings

    News Release

    Washington, D.C. – A new report released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows modest state costs for implementing the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act compared to significant increases in federal funds, allowing some states to see net budget savings even as millions of low-income uninsured Americans gain health coverage. The new, updated analysis, conducted by John Holahan, Matt Buettgens, Caitlin Carroll and Stan Dorn at the Urban Institute for the Foundation's Commission…

  • Health Care on the Brink of the Fiscal Cliff

    Event Date:
    Event

    The Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation present a November 16 briefing to discuss the components of this key policy crossroads with a particular emphasis on the implications for health programs and the health care industry. Automatic cuts would not apply to Medicaid, but Medicare providers would experience 2 percent payment cuts. The reductions would likely be larger for discretionary health programs, such as those funded as part of the National Institutes…

  • The Role of Medicaid for Adults With Chronic Illnesses

    Fact Sheet

    This report and related fact sheets provide data on spending, utilization, and access to care among low-income nonelderly adult Medicaid beneficiaries with chronic illnesses. Four fact sheets provide detail for beneficiaries with diabetes, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, and behavioral health conditions The reports show that, despite relatively high prevalence of chronic conditions and, correspondingly, relatively high spending and utilization rates, Medicaid beneficiaries with chronic illness report better access to care than their uninsured counterparts, many…