Medicaid

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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’s Role for Black Americans

    Fact Sheet

    This fact sheet examines Medicaid's role for black Americans. It includes data on Medicaid's coverage of black Americans and the program's impact on their access to care, as well as the impacts of the recent recession and the coming expansion of Medicaid under health reform on enrollment in Medicaid among black Americans. The fact sheet also has a chart showing state-by-state data on health insurance coverage of black Americans. Fact Sheet (.pdf)

  • Enhanced Medicaid Match Rates Expire in June 2011

    Fact Sheet

    This fact sheet discusses the role played by the enhanced federal Medicaid matching funds available to states through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), and the implications for state Medicaid programs as that extra assistance expires June 30, 2011. States used the ARRA enhanced Medicaid funding to address Medicaid funding shortfalls during the economic downturn, and to mitigate program cuts and address budget shortfalls. As national unemployment has increased in recent years…

  • Medicaid Enrollment and Expenditures by Federal Core Requirements and State Options

    Issue Brief

    To receive federal Medicaid matching funds, states that participate in Medicaid must meet federal requirements, which include covering specified “federal core” enrollee groups and mandatory health benefits. States also may choose to cover additional “state expansion” enrollees and optional benefits with federal Medicaid matching funds. The federal core eligibility standards have expanded incrementally over time, mostly for children and pregnant women, as the Medicaid program separated from welfare. Moreover, many states have taken up options…

  • A Forum on the Implications of Changes in the Health Care Environment for Native American Health Care

    Report

    With the assistance of the First Nations Development Institute, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation commissioned several studies of critical issues in Native-American health care. These studies examined the trends shaping the future of Native-American health care; the existing health systems and planning capacity in the Native-American health care system; the changes occurring in the IHS; the role of Medicaid in Native-American health care; the attitudes and preferences of Native American health care consumers; and…

  • Keeping Medicare and Medicaid When You Work, 2005: A Resource Guide for People with Disabilities, Their Families, and Their Advocates

    Report

    This guide helps to explain the program rules for Medicare and Medicaid with regard to work. Medicare and Medicaid have come to play important roles in the lives and the futures of roughly 20 million children, adults, and seniors with disabilities - and this guide gives people with disabilities new information to help them get the most from these programs. Full PDF Report Section 1: Protecting Health Coverage For People With Disabilities Who Work HTML…

  • Medicaid Update: Expenditures and Beneficiaries in 1994 – Policy Brief

    Issue Brief

    Medicaid Expenditures and Beneficiaries: 1994 Update October 1998 Medicaid is the nation's major public financing program for low-income Americans. After several years of rapid increase in the early 1990s, enrollment and spending growth have moderated and returned to historical levels. For the second consecutive year, annual growth in Medicaid spending was under 10 percent. The estimates presented in this policy brief are based on analyses prepared by The Urban Institute and update previous analyses conducted…

  • Medicaid Eligibility for Families and Children

    Other Post

    Part 5 Appendix Table 1: Medicaid Eligibility Levels for Pregnant Women and Children Pregnant Women, Infants and Children(as of May 20, 1998) Other Eligibility Categories Pregnant Women and Infants Children Under Age 6 Children Ages 6 to 14 Children Ages 14 to 19 Asset Test Required for Children (4) Max. AFDC Payments (7/16/96) (5) Medically Needy, 1996 (percent of Federal Poverty Level) United States 133 133 100 45 49 Alabama 133 133 100 100 No…

  • CHIP TIPS: Medicaid Performance Bonus “5 of 8” Requirements

    Issue Brief

    This brief, the second in a series, examines the requirements that states must meet to be eligible for the new "performance bonus" available to states that do an especially good job of signing up eligible children for Medicaid. The bonus, created by a provision in the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009, is designed to help states cover the added costs that result when states are very successful in enrolling eligible children in…

  • Medicaid Coverage and Care for the Homeless Population: Key Lessons to Consider for the 2014 Medicaid Expansion

    Report

    Beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act ACA provides for a significant Medicaid expansion uninsured, low-income adults. Given their low incomes and high uninsured rate, individuals experiencing homelessness could significantly benefit from this expansion. However, it will be important to address the barriers they face to enrolling in coverage and accessing needed care. This report, based on eight focus group discussions with administrators and frontline workers serving the homeless population in four cities, identifies enrollment…

  • Issues Surrounding the “Clawback” or State Contributions Towards Medicare Drug Coverage:  A Conference Call Discussion

    Other Post

    Issues Surrounding the “Clawback” or State Contributions Towards Medicare Drug Coverage: A Conference Call Discussion As part of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003 signed into law last year, Congress included a financing provision that requires a monthly payment from each state to the Medicare program beginning in January 2006. MMA’s clawback provision will recapture most of the savings that states would realize when Medicare assumes prescription drug costs for…