Issue Brief 16-49
September 29, 2016
Summary 

On September 28, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released revised state personal income and per capita income data for 2015, and revisions for prior years. The federal government uses state per capita income to calculate each state’s reimbursement rate—the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP)—for Medicaid and other grant programs. The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) uses an enhanced FMAP, which is higher than the Medicaid matching rate.

The BEA release allows calculation of the final fiscal year (FY) 2018 FMAPs and enhanced FMAPs, which are based on per capita incomes for calendar years 2013-2015.

This Issue Brief summarizes the BEA data and provides FFIS’s estimates of the final FY 2018 FMAPs and enhanced FMAPs. FFIS estimates that FMAPs will increase in 25 states (with 10 states seeing increases of more than one percentage point) and decline in 12 states.