The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced plans to increase the range of Medicaid services furnished by the Indian Health Service eligible for 100 percent federal match. This proposal reduces states' cost for currently eligible Medicaid beneficiaries as well as for Medicaid expansion, thereby buffering the impending decrease in the federal matching rate for newly eligible adults after 2016. The proposed change in the federal matching rate will be of particular interest to states with a significant American Indian and Alaskan Native population. Recent research by Manatt Health examined the fiscal implications of Medicaid expansion.

Manatt Health has produced a series of reports for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State Health Reform Assistance Network. The first and second reports explored state budget savings and revenue gains associated with expansion, while the third specifically examined the impact of expansion on uncompensated care spending and related state budget implications, and the fourth investigated the potential impact of expansion on criminal justice costs. Our latest issue brief, the fifth in the series, examines proposed rules that offer states additional federal funding for Medicaid services to American Indians and Alaskan Natives.