The Pew Charitable Trusts - State and Consumer Initiatives about State Health Care Spending Project

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Medicaid Cop Survives to Fight Another Day

Utah’s Medicaid Inspector General survived legislative attempts to weaken his policing powers with passage of a bill to extend his appointment by two years.

Combating Medicaid Fraud and Abuse

States are targeting Medicaid fraud and abuse with an array of policies and tools. To help policy makers learn about steps taken in their state and across the country, the State Health Care Spending Project created an online database containing hundreds of practices found to be promising by state and federal Medicaid agencies.

Governing: How Can States Eliminate Medicaid Fraud?

Eradicating Medicaid fraud has become a central focus for states in recent years, especially as the low-income insurance program has consumed more and more of state budgets.

Medicaid Anti-Fraud and Abuse Practices

This first-of-its-kind database compiles and categorizes promising practices states employ to combat Medicaid fraud and abuse.

Health Care Spending Slowdown? Not for States and Localities

While total U.S. health care spending grew slowly in 2011, rising about 4 percent, the story for state and local governments was dramatically different.

A Widening Gap in Cities

A number of the nation’s key cities face unpaid bills for the retirement benefits they have promised their employees. This report examines pension and retiree health care funding in 61 cities—the most populous one in each state plus all others with populations over 500,000—and looks at options for reform.

Pew Study Finds 61 Cities' Retirement Systems Face $217 Billion Gap

Sixty-one key cities across America have emerged from the Great Recession with a gap of more than $217 billion between what they had promised their workers in pensions and retiree health care and what they had saved to pay that bill, according to a report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Q&A: State Health Care Costs

Experts from Pew and the MacArthur Foundation explain why states are seeking to better understand state health care costs and how the State Health Care Spending Project will find and share the answers.

The Widening Gap Update

The gap between the promises states have made for public employees’ retirement benefits and the money they have set aside to pay these bills was at least $1.38 trillion in fiscal year 2010, according to Pew's latest comprehensive analysis on pension and retiree health care funding.

The Widening Gap

The gap between the promises states have made for public employees’ retirement benefits and the money set aside to pay for them grew to at least $1.26 trillion in fiscal year 2009—a 26 percent increase in one year—according to a Pew report.

The Trillion Dollar Gap: Alabama

Alabama needs to improve how it manages its long-term liabilities for both pension and retiree health care and other benefits.