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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  • Access to Affordable Dental Care: Gaps for Low-Income Adults

    Issue Brief

    This policy brief provides data and analysis of coverage and access to oral health care for low-income nonelderly adults. Lack of resources to pay for dental services, either through dental insurance or out-of-pocket, is a major barrier to oral health care for many low-income Americans. The problem is particularly acute for low-income adults, who are more likely to be uninsured than low-income children. Issue Brief (.pdf)

  • Pulling it Together: Duals: The National Health Reform Experiment We Should Be talking More About

    From Drew Altman

    The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and 26 states are moving to launch a large scale managed care demonstration project potentially involving millions of the poorest, sickest, most expensive Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, the so-called dual eligibles. The experiment is getting more and more attention from policy experts, but with controversial issues like the survival of the Affordable Care Act and converting Medicare to a premium support program grabbing the limelight, it has…

  • Medicaid Enrollment: June 2011 Data Snapshot

    Issue Brief

    This snapshot finds that between June 2010 and June 2011, while enrollment continued to grow as an additional 2.2 million people enrolled in Medicaid programs nationally, enrollment growth in the program slowed as the economy started to improve. Enrollment growth over this period was 4.4 percent, down significantly each of the two prior annual periods. Since June 2007, just before the start of the recession, Medicaid enrollment has grown by over 10 million people, over…

  • The Part D Experience: What are the Lessons for Broader Medicare Reform?

    Event Date:
    Event

    Launched in 2006, Medicare added a prescription drug benefit that relies entirely on private plans, while, for other benefits, beneficiaries have a choice between private health plans and traditional fee-for-service Medicare. As policymakers consider changes to Medicare that would give an even greater role to private health plans in caring for Medicare’s nearly 50 million seniors and people with disabilities, the Kaiser Family Foundation hosted a policy workshop to examine how the Part D experience…

  • How is the Affordable Care Act Leading to Changes in Medicaid Today? State Responses to Five New Options

    Issue Brief

    This policy brief examines how states in every region have responded to five key opportunities available under the health reform law to help them prepare for the significant expansion of Medicaid in 2014. The options covered in the brief include incentives for states to get an early start on the Medicaid coverage expansion; increased federal funding to upgrade Medicaid eligibility systems; money to improve care for beneficiaries with chronic conditions by providing "health home" services;…

  • Understanding The Medicaid And CHIP Maintenance of Eligibility Requirements

    Fact Sheet

    This fact sheet examines the provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) that require states to maintain eligibility and enrollment standards for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. These maintenance of eligibility (MOE) provisions were designed to keep Medicaid and CHIP coverage stable until coverage expands under the health reform law. Under the MOE provisions, to receive federal Medicaid funds, states cannot impose eligibility and enrollment policies that are more restrictive…

  • Health Care Use and Chronic Conditions Among Childless Adult Medicaid Enrollees in Arizona

    Issue Brief

    Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), beginning in 2014, Medicaid eligibility will expand to 133% of the federal poverty level for nearly all individuals. Arizona is one of the few states that already cover adults without dependent children in Medicaid through a longstanding Section 1115 waiver. This report, based on 2007 Medicaid claims data for adult Medicaid enrollees in Arizona, provides an analysis of health care utilization and health conditions for childless adults and compares…

  • Quick Take: Geographic Variation in Dual Eligible Enrollment

    Fact Sheet

    Over 9 million elderly Americans and younger persons with disabilities are jointly enrolled in the Medicaid and Medicare programs.  These “dual eligibles” receive coverage for most medical services from Medicare, and they also receive Medicaid assistance for Medicare premiums and cost-sharing and coverage of benefits not offered under Medicare (such as long-term care).  Dual eligibles are among the sickest and poorest individuals covered by Medicare and Medicaid and, as a group, account for a disproportionate…

  • Faces of Medicaid

    Interactive

    Faces of Medicaid Medicaid, the public program that provides health and long-term care coverage for low-income individuals and families, covers about 60 million people currently, or 1 in 5 Americans. Medicaid beneficiaries include pregnant women, children and families, individuals with disabilities, and seniors. During down economies, Medicaid places pressure on state and federal budgets as the number of people who qualify for the program grows. Without Medicaid, most of its beneficiaries would be uninsured or…

  • Five Key Questions About Medicaid And Its Role in State/Federal Budgets and Health Reform

    Report

    This fact sheet highlights key issues about Medicaid, including the structure, financing and purpose of the program, its role for low-income beneficiaries, its share of the federal budget and state budgets, and the significant implications of the coverage expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Fact Sheet (.pdf) Related chartpack: Five Key Questions And Answers About Medicaid