Medicaid overhaul shifts tough choices to states

• While the GOP views Medicaid as a waste-riddled program that's due for a shakeup, the cuts will force painful tradeoffs at the local level as health systems also struggle with inflation, higher labor costs and rising medical costs.
• "Congress left the dirty work to be done by the governors and state legislators, and that work will start very soon," said Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families.

State of play: Medicaid typically accounts for about 30% of a state's budget each year. Spending goes up during tough economic times, and states are required to cover a set of mandatory benefits.

• The fallout from the cuts will vary by state based on their reliance on certain funding mechanisms, like taxes on health care providers, and whether they've expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
• The new work requirements only apply to people in the expansion group.

The biggest changes from the law will arrive in 2027. But states have already started planning for how they'll implement work requirements, decide who's eligible more frequently and cope with new restrictions on how they draw down federal funds.

• They'll also be competing for $50 billion in rural health funding that Congress added to the law — a sum that's been widely criticized as inadequate.
• "We are working day and night ever since this bill was passed," New York's Medicaid director, Amir Bassiri, said while speaking at a conference in Manhattan in July.
• "Chances are we will not be able to mitigate all of the impacts of these changes, but we're going to do everything in our power to do that."

The other side: The new dynamic will force states to think more critically about how taxpayer dollars are being spent in Medicaid, said Brian Blase, president of Paragon Health Institute and a White House official during the first Trump administration.

• "I want there to be a real budget constraint so [states] have to grapple with the actual cost of these programs," he said.

Zoom in: Many states were already preparing austerity moves before President Trump signed the law. States faced with Medicaid budget crunches often cut or limit benefits they aren't required to offer, like dental care or home- and community-based services.

• Other strategies to adjust to the new era of Medicaid funding could include reducing Medicaid payment rates for providers or finding new sources of revenue like additional taxes.
• A big focus is how well states will track whether recipients are either meeting a requirement to complete 80 hours of work, school or community service a month or are exempt from the rules.
• Illinois, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, Utah and Wisconsin have the highest risk of improperly kicking many eligible people off of Medicaid due to procedural issues, per a recent Georgetown Center for Children and Families report.

• The report ranked state performance on eight key metrics, including how long Medicaid centers take to answer calls, how long the states take to process new applications and whether they renew eligibility automatically.

Between the lines: Congress authorized $200 million in federal funds to help states modernize their infrastructure for determining whether people are eligible for Medicaid.

• HHS communications director Andrew Nixon said $100 million of the funds will be allocated equally among states, while the other half will be divvied up based on the share of enrollees in the state that will be subject to work requirements.
• "All funding decisions will be guided by efficiency and legal compliance," he said in an email.

States are still waiting for guidance and regulations from Medicaid administrators on some of the policy changes, and what kinds of technology they can use to ease the burden of reporting work hours and verifying who's eligible.

• Even timelines for getting systems running are up in the air. The budget law gives the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services discretion to let states have up to two more years to get work requirements up and running.

What we're watching: What role health systems and Medicaid advocates have in states' decision-making processes — and whether they can persuade state lawmakers to make up for some of the federal cuts with state funds.

• "We've always said the cuts to Medicaid are ... going to impact so many other parts of state budgets, and so that's where the fight really is," said Nicole Jorwic, chief program officer of Caring Across Generations, a nonprofit that advocated against Congress' health care changes.