Final FY 2011 First Quarter ARRA FMAPs

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, P.L. 111-5) contained provisions that increase Medicaid grants to states for 27 months by increasing their Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAPs), the share of state programs paid by the federal government. P.L. 111-226, enacted in August 2010, provided a two-quarter phased-down extension of the increased FMAPs included in ARRA, from January 1, 2011-June 30, 2011. The new law also modified the calculation of the ARRA FMAPs for the fourth quarter of federal fiscal year (FY) 2010 (July 1, 2010-September 30, 2010) and first quarter of FY 2011 (October 1, 2010-December 31, 2010). Issue Brief 10-32 provides a detailed analysis of the ARRA FMAP extension.

This Issue Brief estimates the final first quarter FMAPs for FY 2011 based on the changes included in P.L. 111-226, state unemployment data for September 2010 published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on November 23, 2010, and the new underlying base FMAPs for FY 2011. The final FMAPs for the quarter remain the same as the preliminary FMAPs listed in Issue Brief 10-44.