Templates & Toolkits | Feb 18, 2021

A Better Way to Manage Medicaid Costs

Anne Karl, Cindy Mann, and Patricia Boozang, Manatt Health

Many states are experiencing budget shortfalls due to the COVID-19 induced recession. Since Medicaid accounts for a significant portion of states’ budgets, states often look to the Medicaid program for savings. Since the Great Recession, states have invested in initiatives that can improve care and also lower costs—such as improving coordination of behavioral health and physical health services, making home and community-based options more available to those who might otherwise go into nursing homes, addressing social drivers of health, and lowering pharmacy costs. Not all of these initiatives can generate short-term savings, but they offer other actions that states facing budget shortfalls may take to achieve savings. This toolkit outlines state options to address Medicaid spending without harming enrollee health and provider stability and access to care.


Expert Perspectives

May 10, 2024

New Rule Opens the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces to DACA Recipients

On May 3, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a final regulation that allows people who receive Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to sign up for subsidized Marketplace or Basic Health Program coverage. The new policy goes into effect on November 1, 2024 and is expected to enable 100,000 DACA recipients to enroll in health insurance coverage. This expert perspective summarizes the provisions of the new regulation and discusses their implications for states.

May 3, 2024

States of Innovation: March & April 2024

State Health and Value Strategies is launching a new series on the latest health news at the state level. States of Innovation will highlight what states are working on to achieve better, more affordable, and more equitable health for all. This inaugural States of Innovation highlights state activity in March and April and includes updates from: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennslyvania and Virginia.