Medicaid

new and noteworthy

Medicaid: What to Watch in 2026

Medicaid: What to Watch in 2026

In this brief, KFF explores how state fiscal pressures are likely to converge with the implementation of the 2025 reconciliation law to affect Medicaid coverage, financing, and access to care over the next year, especially leading up to the midterm elections.

Medicaid Watch

Featuring policy research, polling and news about how Medicaid is changing, and the impact of those changes due to the tax and spending cuts law

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 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.

5 Facts: 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 in 2025

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.

5 Facts: 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.

2025 Medicaid Home Care survey

Payment Rates Ahead of 2025 Reconciliation Law

This issue brief describes Medicaid payment rates for home care and other workforce supports that are in place in 2025, before the majority of the 2025 reconciliation law provisions start taking effect.

Home Care Support for Family Caregivers in 2025
number of responding states, including DC, that allow payments for family caregivers by type of home care program and type of caregiver.

This issue brief describes the availability of self-directed services and supports for family caregivers in Medicaid home care in 2025, before most provisions in the reconciliation law take effect.

States’ Management of Home Care Spending

This issue brief describes the mechanisms states are currently using to limit Medicaid spending on home care and their plans for adopting new mechanisms in state fiscal year (FY) 2026.

Waiting Lists for Medicaid Home Care, 2016 to 2025
A Look at Waiting Lists for Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services from 2016 to 2025

This data note provides new information about waiting lists in Medicaid home care before many of the provisions in the 2025 reconciliation law go into effect.

Eligibility and coverage
  • Eligibility, Enrollment, and Renewal Policies

    KFF's survey findings capture state actions that seek to improve the accuracy and efficiency of Medicaid and CHIP enrollment and renewal processes, as of January 2025.
  • Seniors and People with Disabilities

    More than 1 in 3 people with disabilities (15 million) have Medicaid (35%). In comparison, only 19% of people without disabilities have Medicaid.
  • Children with Special Needs

    Amid debates about proposed cuts to federal Medicaid spending, this brief analyzes key characteristics of children with special health care needs and explores how Medicaid provides them with coverage.
  • People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

    Among the estimated 8 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), over three million have Medicaid coverage.
  • Adults with Chronic Conditions

    Among working age adults enrolled in Medicaid, approximately three quarters have one or more chronic conditions, and nearly one-third have three or more.

Subscribe to KFF Emails

Choose which emails are best for you.
Sign up here

Filter

271 - 280 of 2,687 Results

  • Challenges and Strategies in Expanding Non-Traditional Pregnancy-Related Services: Findings from a Survey of State Medicaid Programs

    Issue Brief

    A growing number of states have added Medicaid coverage of non-traditional pregnancy-related care and services in recent years, such as doula services, lactation services, and home visiting programs, to promote better maternal and infant health outcomes and reduce racial/ethnic health disparities. This brief explores state strategies and challenges in promoting access to these services.

  • Examining New Medicaid Resources to Expand School-Based Behavioral Health Services

    Issue Brief

    In light of worsening mental health among youth, strategies have been implemented to improve access to behavioral health services in recent years, including expanding school-based care for students. Leveraging Medicaid to improve and address gaps in school-based behavioral health services has been a key strategy in recent years as youth mental health concerns have grown. Provisions from the Safer Communities Act of 2022 utilize Medicaid to expand both school-based health care and other mechanisms of youth behavioral health care. This issue brief explores the implementation of these provisions from the Safer Communities Act thus far, with a focus on the guidance issued from CMS.

  • KFF Survey of Medicaid Unwinding

    Poll Finding

    KFF's survey examines adults who had Medicaid coverage in early 2023, just before states resumed eligibility checks and disenrollments after pandemic-era protections ended. Nearly a quarter (23%) of adults who say they were disenrolled from Medicaid since early 2023 report being uninsured now. Overall, 19% of adults who had Medicaid prior to the start of unwinding say they were disenrolled at some point in the past year.

  • Consumer Problems with Prior Authorization: Evidence from KFF Survey

    Issue Brief

    This Data Note highlights findings from the KFF Consumer Survey on problems consumers have experienced with prior authorization requirements. Overall, those with Medicaid, those who are higher utilizers of care, and those who seek certain types of care such as care for a mental health condition or diabetes encountered more problems with prior authorization over the past year.

  • Understanding Medicaid Procedural Disenrollment Rates

    Policy Watch

    State Medicaid unwinding data show procedural disenrollment rates are high across most states. This policy watch provides insights for interpreting the data and describes steps the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and states are taking to reduce procedural disenrollments. 

  • Medicaid and People with HIV

    Issue Brief

    This data note provides an overview of the role of the Medicaid program for people with and at risk for HIV.

  • Medicaid Enrollment Growth: Estimates by State and Eligibility Group Show Who may be at Risk as Continuous Enrollment Ends

    Issue Brief

    This analysis estimates Medicaid enrollment growth by state and eligibility group between February 2020, before the pandemic, and March 31, 2023, at the end of the continuous eligibility period. These estimates can help paint a picture of the overall number and composition of enrollees who may risk coverage loss after the continuous enrollment provision ends.