Implementing the ACA: Medicaid Spending & Enrollment Growth for FY 2014 and FY 2015
Definition of Medicaid Spending. Total Medicaid spending includes all payments to Medicaid providers for Medicaid covered services provided to enrolled Medicaid beneficiaries. In addition, total Medicaid spending includes special payments to “disproportionate share hospitals” (“DSH payments”) that subsidize uncompensated care for persons who are uninsured and unreimbursed costs related to care for persons on Medicaid. Not included in total Medicaid spending are Medicaid administrative costs, costs for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and federally mandated state “Clawback” payments to Medicare (to help finance the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit for beneficiaries who are dually enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid.) Total Medicaid spending includes payments financed from all sources, including state funds, local contributions and federal match funds.
Methdology. The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) commissioned Health Management Associates (HMA) to survey Medicaid directors in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to identify and track trends in Medicaid spending, enrollment and policy making. This was the fourteenth annual survey, conducted at the beginning of each state fiscal year from FY 2002 through FY 2015.
The KCMU/HMA Medicaid survey on which this report is based was conducted from June through August 2014. Medicaid directors and staff provided data for this report in response to a written survey and a follow-up telephone interview. The survey was sent to each Medicaid director in June 2014. All 50 states and DC completed surveys and participated in telephone interview discussions in June, July and August 2014. The telephone discussions are an integral part of the survey to ensure complete and accurate responses and to record the complexities of state actions.
Annual rates of growth for Medicaid spending and enrollment were calculated as weighted averages across all states, and for states based on state decisions to implement the ACA Medicaid expansion in 2014 or 2015. For FYs 2014 and 2015, average annual Medicaid spending growth was calculated using weights derived from the most recent state Medicaid expenditure data for fiscal year 2013, based on estimates prepared for KCMU by the Urban Institute using CMS Form 64 reports, adjusted for state fiscal years. These data were also used for historic Medicaid spending. Medicaid enrollment average annual growth rates were calculated using weights based on state enrollment data for June 2013.1
Because the data reported here for FYs 2014 and 2015 are weighted averages derived from Medicaid spending and enrollment, data reported for states with larger spending and enrollment have a larger effect on the national average. These effects are further amplified when looking at smaller groups of states, such as states implementing the Medicaid expansion and those that have not.
Additional information collected in the survey on policy actions taken during FY 2014 and FY 2015 can be found in the following report: https://www.kff.org/medicaid/report/medicaid-in-an-era-of-health-delivery-system-reform-results-from-a-50-state-medicaid-budget-survey-for-state-fiscal-years-2014-and-2015
