Medicaid

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Medicaid Work Requiremnts

Tracking 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. KFF is tracking key data and policy information related to Medicaid work requirements and how states are approaching implementation.

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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  • Prescriptions to Treat Opioid Overdoses and Opioid Use Disorder Among Medicaid Enrollees Rose Sharply in the Years Leading Up to the Pandemic

    News Release

    State Medicaid programs saw a doubling of prescriptions for medications used to treat Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) or rapidly reverse opioid overdoses from 2016 to 2019, finds a new KFF analysis. KFF analysts studied the latest available Medicaid claims data -- detailed and comprehensive administrative data that can help answer questions and inform policy -- and found that the share of enrollees who received at least one medication used to treat OUD or reverse opioid…

  • A Look at Substance Use Disorders (SUD) Among Medicaid Enrollees

    Issue Brief

    In its role as a public program and the single largest payer of behavioral health services in the country, Medicaid is particularly well positioned to implement policy to improve the delivery, quality, and effectiveness of behavioral health services. Our analysis finds that 7.3 percent of Medicaid enrollees ages 12 to 64 had at least one clinically-identified substance use disorder in 2019, but this is likely an undercount, as other research suggests that prevalence is at…

  • Leveraging Medicaid for School-Based Behavioral Health Services: Findings from a Survey of State Medicaid Programs

    Issue Brief

    Concerns about youth mental health and access to care continues to increase. Schools can be an easy access point for behavioral health services and Medicaid provides significant financing for the delivery of these services in schools. In this analysis, we explore the strategies state Medicaid programs are taking to promote and improve access to school-based behavioral health services, and how recent policies call on Medicaid to expand access to care for youth, particularly in schools.

  • Section 1115 Waiver Watch: How California Will Expand Medicaid Pre-Release Services for Incarcerated Populations

    Policy Watch

    On January 26, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved California’s Section 1115 request to cover a package of reentry services for certain groups of incarcerated individuals 90 days prior to release. This approval is the first to include a partial waiver of the statutory Medicaid inmate exclusion policy, which prohibits Medicaid from paying for services provided during incarceration (except for inpatient services).

  • Two KFF Analyses Explore the Demographics of People Jointly Enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid As Well As Program Enrollment and Spending for This Population

    News Release

    The 12.5 million people who are jointly enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid include some of the poorest individuals in the U.S. with some of the highest health needs, requiring disproportionately high spending from both programs to support them. Two new KFF analyses examine the demographics of this population as well as the latest data on program enrollment and spending.  These data can help inform federal and state policy discussions about ways to improve coordination and…

  • Enrollment and Spending Patterns Among Medicare-Medicaid Enrollees (Dual Eligibles)

    Issue Brief

    This brief examines national and state-level data on enrollment and spending for Medicare-Medicaid enrollees using the 2019 and 2020 Medicare Beneficiary Summary Files and the 2019 Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS). Spending data for Medicare includes beneficiaries in traditional Medicare only, since spending data for beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans are unavailable. State-level data on Medicare-Medicaid enrollment and spending are available through KFF’s State Health Facts.

  • A Profile of Medicare-Medicaid Enrollees (Dual Eligibles)

    Issue Brief

    This brief examines the demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics of Medicare-Medicaid enrollees using the 2020 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey. It highlights the diversity within the Medicare-Medicaid population and how Medicare-Medicaid enrollees differ from all other Medicare beneficiaries.