The catastrophic destruction caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria overwhelmed the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rican governments and resulted in a large federal disaster response. The Department of Health and Human Services led federal public health and medical services efforts. Among other things, it provided medical personnel and facilities and evacuated critical care and dialysis patients. W...

The Zika virus outbreak that began in 2015 sickened adults, but also had another particularly tragic result—brain defects and other problems in infected fetuses. It represented the first time in more than 50 years that an infectious pathogen had been found to cause birth defects. As the virus spread into the United States, Congress appropriated $932 million to address the growing threat. We rev...

Eligibility and benefits for Medicaid and the state Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in five U.S. territories—American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, Puerto Rico and the U. S. Virgin Islands—differ from one another and from the states, generally reflecting the territories' unique circumstances. For example, Guam is the only territory that covers all...

This is an E-supplement to GAO-12-821. This e-supplement presents the questions and aggregate results from a Web survey of state budget directors on the fiscal implications of Medicaid expansion implementation on state budget planning...

The five largest insular areas of the United States--American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands--receive federal funding through Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), joint federal-state programs that finance health care for certain low-income individuals. These programs are administered and f...

This is an E-Supplement to GAO-08-346, which was released on May 13, 2008. This product lists the questions asked and the summary results from three GAO surveys of state child welfare or protective service, health and mental health, and juvenile justice and rehabilitation agency directors. The Web-based surveys asked questions about the extent to which state agencies licensed and monitored residen...

Despite progress in HIV/AIDS drug treatments and the reduction of AIDS mortality in the United States, challenges remain concerning the availability of these drugs for individuals with HIV/AIDS and the prevention of new cases. The CARE Act authorizes grants to the states and certain territories specifically for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) to purchase and provide HIV/AIDS drugs to eligible...

Five insular areas of the United States--American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands--benefit from federal health care financing and grant programs that help fund health care services to their over 4 million residents. However, notable differences exist in how the programs are funded or operate in the insular areas, such a...

Almost half of all Americans over the age of 65 will rely on nursing home care at some point in their lives, and two in three nursing home residents have their care covered at least in part by Medicaid. Under Medicaid, states set nursing home payment rates and the federal government reimburses a share of state spending. According to the most recently available data, Medicaid nursing home expenditu...

Prior to 2001, military retirees who turned age 65 and became eligible for Medicare lost most of their Department of Defense (DOD) health benefits. The DOD-Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) demonstration was one of several demonstrations established to examine alternatives for addressing retirees' lack of Medicare supplemental coverage. The demonstration was mandated by the Strom T...