More than 13 million people in the U.S. are dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, a population that often has significant health and social needs and high related costs. A small, but growing, percentage of this population is enrolled in integrated programs that coordinate Medicare and Medicaid service delivery. To develop and operate an integrated care model, state Medicaid agency staff and their partners must develop knowledge of Medicare’s evolving landscape of policies, regulations, and market activity. However, they often have limited access to Medicare-focused information and training.

The Medicare Academy, led by the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) with support from Arnold Ventures, The Commonwealth Fund, and The SCAN Foundation, is a training program designed to help Medicaid and partner agency staff develop new integrated programs or refine existing ones. The Academy is currently supporting Medicaid agencies in two states — North Carolina and Rhode Island — through in-person training to build the Medicare knowledge needed to advance their Medicare-Medicaid integration goals. The training curriculum equips states with practical Medicare knowledge, enabling them to make meaningful changes to their integration policies and processes and develop strategies to sustain Medicare capacity over time.

Since 2022, 21 states and U.S. territories from across the country have participated in this unique learning opportunity. Past participants include California, Colorado, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington State, and Wisconsin.