Most states are facing severe budget crises, forcing them to reduce Medicaid program costs. States have many different options to reduce Medicaid expenditures, including cutting optional eligibles or optional services, reducing provider payments and increasing recipient cost sharing. Many of the states' actions to reduce Medicaid program costs may have a differential impact in rural areas.

In an attempt to ascertain the impact of Medicaid cuts on rural recipients and providers, project staff conducted a 50-state survey of state Medicaid agencies, offices of rural health and rural health associations. The organizations were surveyed on topics such as specific options states have taken to reduce Medicaid expenditures, whether provider participation in Medicaid has changed over the last three years, changes in eligibles, and potential interest states have in recent proposals to block-grant the Medicaid program. The study findings will be presented in a short policy brief and a paper submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.

Publications

• The Impact of Medicaid Cuts on Rural Communities
  North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center
  Date: 08/2005
  This study assesses the perception of state Medicaid staff and individuals from State Offices of Rural Health (SORH) and Rural Health Associations (RHA) regarding the impact on rural areas of state Medicaid policy changes that occurred between 2002 and 2004.