Research, strategy, and hard-won lessons for the people reshaping health & human services.
-
The Social Care Infrastructure We Built Works. It’s Also Reversible in a Single Budget Cycle.
START READING: The Social Care Infrastructure We Built Works. It’s Also Reversible in a Single Budget Cycle.We spent a decade building real health–social care integration—then, in 2025, learned how fast it can be switched off. The case for building the “missing layer” as durable, community-owned public…
-
The Work Requirements Clock Is Running: What State Agencies, MCOs, Providers, and Advocates Need to Do Right Now
START READING: The Work Requirements Clock Is Running: What State Agencies, MCOs, Providers, and Advocates Need to Do Right NowCMS has published its interim final rule. Most analyses explain what it says. This one focuses on what you need to do about it.
-
Federal Grants in 2026: What’s Changed, and How to Prepare
START READING: Federal Grants in 2026: What’s Changed, and How to PrepareA mid-2026 update on federal grantmaking: what has stabilized since the funding freezes, the new operational risks to watch, and concrete steps your organization should take now.
-
A System Under Siege: What Health and Human Services Leaders Must Know Right Now
START READING: A System Under Siege: What Health and Human Services Leaders Must Know Right NowOn Dec. 31, 2025, the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits expired without congressional renewal — and the consequences are already showing up in revenue mix reports, emergency…
-
From Funding to Function: Making the Rural Health Transformation Program Work
START READING: From Funding to Function: Making the Rural Health Transformation Program WorkThe Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) represents a $50 billion, five-year federal investment in rural health, the largest in a generation. Washington State, North Carolina, and Connecticut have received year-one…
-
Unlocking $50 Billion for Rural Health: Key Lessons, Risks, and State Strategies
START READING: Unlocking $50 Billion for Rural Health: Key Lessons, Risks, and State StrategiesThe federal Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) is funded and moving fast. It was authorized under H.R 1*, or “The One Bill Beautiful Bill.” The program commits $50 billion over…
-
Medicaid Work Requirements Are Here. The Implementation Choices That Follow Will Determine Who Keeps Coverage.
START READING: Medicaid Work Requirements Are Here. The Implementation Choices That Follow Will Determine Who Keeps Coverage.For sixty years, Medicaid had one job: provide health insurance to people with low incomes. That changed on July 4, 2025, when the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1)…
-
How Federal Grants Fell into Chaos and What Health and Human Services Providers Should Do Next
START READING: How Federal Grants Fell into Chaos and What Health and Human Services Providers Should Do NextOnce a reliable mainstay of programmatic and research support for health and human service nonprofits, federal grants have become a wild game of bureaucratic whack-a-mole. It’s a mind-bending, bewildering, maddening…
-
A Storm Brewing: Expiring ACA Marketplace Enhanced Subsidies and the Risk of Another Federal Government Shutdown
START READING: A Storm Brewing: Expiring ACA Marketplace Enhanced Subsidies and the Risk of Another Federal Government ShutdownAs we edge closer to a new year, two major federal policy flashpoints are aligning in ways that could profoundly affect millions of Americans: the scheduled expiration of enhanced Affordable…
