News release: “Faced with the end of stimulus money and a continuing weak economy, Medicaid officials in virtually every state are enacting a variety of cost cutting measures as states’ spending for Medicaid is projected to increase 28.7 percent this fiscal year to make up for the loss of federal funds, according to a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. The substantial but temporary increase in the federal share of Medicaid spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) brought about the only declines in state spending on Medicaid in the program’s history in fiscal years 2009 and 2010, even as the deep recession sharply increased Medicaid enrollment and overall Medicaid spending during that period. With that money having expired in June 2011, however, states must ramp up their own spending to replace the lost funds, even though states project total spending in the Medicaid program — which is jointly financed by the federal government and the states — to increase on average by a modest 2.2 percent this year. The Commission’s 11th annual 50-state Medicaid budget survey captured cost containment actions ranging from restrictions on payments to providers and benefits, to new copayments for beneficiaries and additional efforts to contain the costs of prescription drugs. At the same time, states are trying to make their programs more efficient by increasing their reliance on Medicaid managed care, moving long-term care toward community-based care models, and streamlining enrollment procedures. Even with such measures, Medicaid officials in more than half the states estimate at least a 50-50 chance that they will see a budget shortfall this fiscal year as enrollment continues to grow.”