Medicaid Reforms to Expand Coverage, Control Costs and Improve Care: Results from a 50-State Medicaid Budget Survey for State Fiscal Years 2015 and 2016
Introduction
This report provides an in-depth examination of the reforms, policy changes and initiatives taking place in state Medicaid programs across the country. The findings in this report are drawn from the 15th annual budget survey of Medicaid officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia conducted by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) and Health Management Associates (HMA), in collaboration with the National Association of Medicaid Directors. This was the fifteenth annual survey, which has been conducted at the beginning of each state fiscal year from FY 2002 through FY 2016.1 (Copies of previous reports are archived here.)
The KCMU/HMA Medicaid survey on which this report is based was conducted from June through August 2015. Medicaid directors and staff provided data for this report in response to a written survey and a follow-up telephone interview. All 50 states and DC completed surveys and participated in telephone interview discussions between June and August 2015. The survey asked state officials to describe policy initiatives and changes that occurred in FY 2015 and those adopted for implementation for FY 2016 (which began for most states on July 1, 20152). The survey does not attempt to catalog all Medicaid policies. Experience has shown that adopted policies are sometimes delayed or not implemented for reasons related to legal, fiscal, administrative, systems or political considerations, or due to delays in approval from CMS. Not included in the survey are policy changes under consideration where a definite decision on implementation has not yet been made. A copy of the survey instrument is located in the appendix of this report.
Key findings of this survey, along with 50-state tables providing more detailed information, are described in the following sections of this report:
