**GAO-08-255T**                      Published: Nov 01, 2007. Publicly Released: Nov 01, 2007.                  

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## Highlights

Medicaid, a joint federal-state program, financed the health care for about 60 million low-income people in fiscal year 2005. States have considerable flexibility in deciding what medical services and individuals to cover and the amount to pay providers, and the federal government reimburses a proportion of states' expenditures according to a formula established by law. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is the federal agency responsible for overseeing Medicaid. Growing pressures on federal and state budgets have increased tensions between the federal government and states regarding this program, including concerns about whether states were appropriately financing their share of the program. GAO's testimony describes findings from prior work conducted from 1994 through March 2007 on (1) certain inappropriate state Medicaid financing arrangements and their implications for Medicaid's fiscal integrity, and (2) outcomes and transparency of a CMS oversight initiative begun in 2003 to end such inappropriate arrangements.

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## Topics

Health Care

Budget obligationsFederal aid to statesFederal fundsFederal regulationsFederal social security programsstate relationsHealth care programsMedicaidStandardsExpenditure of funds