Medicaid and SNAP have reduced racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare access and food security, but some administrative and eligibility policies continue to create inequitable barriers.
Starting November 1, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) began asking three new optional sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) questions on the single, streamlined application developed by the Secretary. This guidance gives instructs states on the process for modifying SOGI questions in their applications.
This landscape analysis examines data, design, technology, and innovation-enabled approaches that make it easier for eligible people to enroll in, and receive, federally-funded social safety net benefits, with a focus on the earliest adaptations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Applicants to federal aid programs face numerous barriers in accessing benefits they are eligible for. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare conducted an extensive qualitative user research study to better understand applicant experience in enrolling in public assistance programs. Based on the results, the study emphasizes the need for simplified, streamlined and less burdensome application processes.
This paper discusses the country’s chronic underinvestment in children and resulting outcomes, including new data on poverty rates among young children, is inextricable from the prospects of young children; and the remarkably comprehensive pandemic-era response policies, including which changes contributed most to reducing child poverty.
The team developed an application to simplify Medicaid and CHIP applications through LLM APIs while addressing limitations such as hallucinations and outdated information by implementing a selective input process for clean and current data.
This case study details the development of a document extraction prototype to streamline benefits application processing through automated data capture and classification.
This report presents findings and recommendations from a user experience study based on interviews with 156 participants enrolled in Medicaid and SNAP.
Created for use in the Digital Doorways research project, this design stimuli shows the steps of submitting an application, sharing personal information, and verifying identity for New York's integrated online application that includes SNAP and Medicaid.
This analysis outlines how the federal H.R. 1 legislation will reshape funding, eligibility, and service delivery across key state programs—including SNAP, Medicaid, higher education, and energy—quantifying projected fiscal and human impacts across multiple agencies
Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM)
This 8.5x11 service blueprint visually maps how Medicaid work requirements will function once implemented in 2027, detailing each policy step, system interaction, and client experience to help states identify administrative challenges and opportunities for human-centered redesign.
This report summarizes insights from interviews with seven states on how they are adapting integrated eligibility and enrollment (IEE) systems in response to sweeping federal changes to SNAP and Medicaid under H.R. 1.
