Medicaid eligibility requirements

States Continue to Work on Medicaid Eligibility Changes

With last year’s budget reconciliation bill – also known as H.R. 1 and the “Big Beautiful Bill Act” – requiring most Medicaid beneficiaries to have jobs or participate in community engagement activities beginning next year, the states continue to develop and refine the policies and practices they will need to implement and enforce the new requirements. The KFF has surveyed state Medicaid officials to identify what the states are doing and how they are doing it. Among Kaiser’s findings: Three states intend to implement the new Medicaid work requirements this year – ahead of the January 2027 implementation deadline – [...]

The Struggle to Help Prove Medicaid Eligibility

With new Medicaid work rules scheduled to take effect in 42 states by the end of 2026, policymakers are working to find new, better ways to enable Medicaid applicants to demonstrate that they are meeting Medicaid work and community engagement requirements. While the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has set aside $200 million to pursue technology solutions for this problem, such efforts, at least so far, have not proven successful. In a test in Louisiana, for example, state officials sent text messages to 13,000 Medicaid enrollees, asking them to follow a link to a state web site at which [...]