Medicaid

new and noteworthy

5 Facts: Medicaid Fraud, Waste, Abuse and Improper Payments

Program integrity efforts work to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse; increase program transparency and accountability; and recover improper payments. This brief explains what we know about these issues and efforts to address program integrity.

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 and work

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.

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571 - 580 of 2,682 Results

  • What Administrative Changes Can Trump Make to Medicaid?

    Policy Watch

    With Donald Trump returning to the presidency, the future of Medicaid is uncertain. While Medicaid did not receive a lot of attention directly during the campaign, Trump’s first term can shed light on potential changes that could be implemented administratively without Congress.

  • What Role Do Immigrants Play in The Direct Long-Term Care Workforce?

    Issue Brief

    To increase understanding of how shifting immigration policies may affect the direct care workforce providing long-term care services, this data note uses the 2023 American Community Survey (ACS) to provide an overview of the role that immigrants play in the direct care workforce for long-term care (LTC) services

  • KFF examines and compares states across a range of measures that may make it harder for states to respond to potential federal Medicaid cuts.

    Responding to Federal Medicaid Reductions: Which States Are Most at Risk?

    Issue Brief

    A new KFF analysis examines a range of measures that may make it harder for states to respond to possible federal Medicaid cuts and finds that six states (Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, South Carolina, and West Virginia) rank in the top five for multiple risk categories. Across four broad categories of measures that could affect demand for Medicaid and states’ abilities to raise revenue or reduce spending—population demographic characteristics, health status of Medicaid enrollees, available revenue and state budget choices, and health care costs and access to care—KFF finds that 15 states rank in the top five for at least one category of risk factors.

  • Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Adults in Medicaid: Key Themes from a Policy Roundtable

    Report

    Medicaid and CHIP programs have made significant strides in improving low-income children’s access to and use of dental care, but access to oral health care for low-income adults lags far behind. To probe current opportunities, challenges, and strategies related to expanding access to oral health care for adults in Medicaid, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured convened a group of experts and stakeholders in Spring 2016 to discuss the issues. This brief conveys key themes that emerged from the conversation.

  • New Survey Finds 72% of Previously Uninsured Californians Now Have Coverage, Including 78% of Those Eligible for New Affordable Care Act Options

    News Release

    For Remaining Uninsured Residents, Cost and Immigration Status Are Main Obstacles Three years after the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansions were fully implemented in California, nearly three quarters (72%) of the state’s previously uninsured residents now have health coverage, finds the fourth Kaiser Family Foundation Longitudinal Panel Survey, which is tracking the experiences of a randomly…

  • New Incentive for States to Adopt the ACA Medicaid Expansion: Implications for State Spending

    Issue Brief

    The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 encourages non-expansion states to take up the expansion by providing an additional temporary fiscal incentive for states to newly implement the ACA Medicaid expansion. This brief provides illustrative estimates of the net fiscal benefit to states from these incentives relative to state costs under the expansion.

  • Options to Make Medicare More Affordable For Beneficiaries Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

    Report

    Medicare provides significant health and financial protections to more than 60 million Americans, but there are gaps in coverage and high cost-sharing requirements that can make health care difficult to afford. This report analyzes several policy options that could help make health care more affordable for people covered by Medicare, especially beneficiaries with relatively low incomes: adding an out-of-pocket limit to traditional Medicare, adding a hard out-of-pocket cap to Part D, expanding financial assistance through the Medicare Savings Programs, and expanding financial assistance through the Part D low-income subsidy program.

  • The Wisconsin Health Care Landscape

    Fact Sheet

    Wisconsin has long been a leader among states in expanding coverage to its low-income residents since even before the major coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect on January 1, 2014.