Medicaid

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Medicaid Work RequiremEnts

Key Issues for the Medical Frailty Exemption from Medicaid Work Requirements

CMS has released new guidance on Medicaid work requirements. For background on the medical frailty exemption, one of the key issues in the new rule, check out KFF's explainer. KFF is closely tracking how states are approaching implementation of Medicaid work requirements and navigating related challenges.

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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681 - 690 of 2,707 Results

  • Medicaid and State Financing: Key Indicators to Watch Through Pandemic and Recovery

    Issue Brief

    The health and economic effects of the pandemic have significant implications for state Medicaid programs, as more people become eligible and enroll in Medicaid at the same time that states may face declines in revenues. This brief presents current data for key economic indicators to help understand how they could affect Medicaid enrollment and spending.

  • Implications of the Medicaid Fiscal Cliff for the U.S. Territories

    Issue Brief

    The U.S territories – American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) – have faced an array of longstanding fiscal and health challenges that were exacerbated by recent natural disasters and most recently by the COVID-19 pandemic. Differences in Medicaid financing, including a statutory cap and match rate, have contributed to broader fiscal and health systems challenges for the territories. Congress is currently debating…

  • Understanding the Impact of Medicaid Premiums & Cost-Sharing: Updated Evidence from the Literature and Section 1115 Waivers

    Issue Brief

    Our review of recent literature on premiums and cost-sharing is based on studies and reports published between 2017 and 2021. Our analysis of premiums in post-Affordable Care Act (ACA) Section 1115 waivers (approved under the Obama and Trump administrations) is based on available interim and final waiver evaluations as well as annual and quarterly state data reports posted on Medicaid.gov.

  • Children Head Back to School Amid an Ongoing Pandemic That Has Had Significant Effects on Their Health and Well-Being

    News Release

    As students head back to in-person school this fall, a new KFF brief highlights the effects of the ongoing pandemic on the health and well-being of children, including missed routine vaccinations and preventive care, mental health challenges and economic setbacks that can influence health. There had been over 4 million COVID-19 cases among children as of July 29, 2021, with children comprising an increasing share of new cases due to the Delta variant. At the…

  • Back to School amidst the New Normal: Ongoing Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Children’s Health and Well-Being

    Issue Brief

    As millions of children across the nation prepare to go back to school this fall, many will face challenges due to ongoing health, economic, and social consequences of the pandemic. This brief examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the health and well-being of children, explores recent policy responses, and considers what the findings means for the back-to-school season amidst new challenges due to the recent increase in cases and deaths.

  • Direct Care Workforce Shortages Have Worsened in Many States During the Pandemic, Hampering Providers of Home and Community-Based Services

    News Release

    During the pandemic many states have experienced worsening direct care workforce shortages that have affected providers of home- and community-based long-term care services (HCBS), according to early findings of a new KFF survey of Medicaid HCBS programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Most states reported workforce shortages as the pandemic’s primary impact on HCBS provided in an enrollee’s home and in group homes. The pandemic has brought new attention among policymakers…

  • State Medicaid Home & Community-Based Services (HCBS) Programs Respond to COVID-19: Early Findings from a 50-State Survey

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief presents early findings from the most recent KFF survey of Medicaid HCBS programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It focuses on state policies adopted in response to challenges posed by the pandemic, the pandemic’s impact on Medicaid HCBS enrollees and providers, and states’ initial plans for the new American Rescue Plan Act 10 percentage point temporary increase in federal Medicaid matching funds for HCBS available from April 2021…

  • Once Common, COVID-19 Deaths in Long-Term Care Were Rare across Most States in June

    News Release

    Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, residents and staff at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities accounted for a huge share of COVID deaths, but a new KFF analysis finds that they were relatively rare events across the country in June. The analysis finds that 13 states and the District of Columbia in June reported either no COVID-19 deaths, or virtually no deaths compared to the state’s population, at long-term care facilities. Most other states…

  • COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in Long-Term Care Facilities through June 2021

    Issue Brief

    This data note examines state-level data on COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care facilities through June prior to the recent rise in cases and deaths nationally linked to the spread of the Delta variant. It finds long-term care deaths down 96% from their peak in December as the nation's vaccination effort began.