As states gear up to implement Medicaid work requirements nationally at the start of next year, the Trump administration announced Thursday that 10 leading tech companies have promised to offer $600 million in discounted and free services to support the rollout.
The work requirements were codified under H.R. 1, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, last summer. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) offered (PDF) additional detail in December on the requirements, requiring able-bodied individuals to complete 80 hours of work, community service, job training or education per month.
Amy Gleason, strategic advisor to the CMS and acting administrator of the U.S. DOGE Service, said during a press briefing Thursday that officials have been piloting new tech for eligibility determinations with states since the midpoint of last year.
"We’re confident as we start to modernize Medicaid that they’ll be able to make those timelines and we’ll be with them every step of the way," Gleason said.
The 10 companies that have voluntarily agreed to work with the CMS are: Accenture, Acentra Health, Conduent, GDIT, Deloitte, Gainwell, Maximus, Curam by Merative, Optum and RedMane. Dan Brillman, director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, said that in some cases, states were already in early talks with these firms about implementation when CMS stepped in to assist with the negotiations.
He said states estimated that it would cost them between $3 million and $10 million to set up the eligibility determination systems necessary for the work requirements, with the $600 million in savings reflecting discounts and free services to cut those estimates.
The savings reflect cost reductions for both states and the federal government, Brillman said.
"We want 2026 technology in the hands of states," he said. "The companies were extremely excited to do this. Everyone’s really focused on getting to work."
Brillman added that some of the providers available to manage Medicaid eligibility also offer similar services for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. There is significant overlap between SNAP beneficiaries and Medicaid enrollees, and eligibility determinations for both can be integrated to streamline the process.
Data analytics can also make it easier to proactively identify people who qualify for exemptions, such as disabled veterans, before they need to interact with the system themselves, he said, and can also enable more direct outreach to beneficiaries in advance.
In addition to the companies offering the voluntary discounts, Gleason said the CMS team has been working to develop an open-source tool called EMMY states can choose to tap into rather than partnering with one of the participating vendors.
Gleason said the CMS is also providing on-the-ground technical assistance with the implementation, regardless of whether a state signs on with EMMY or with one of the other tech vendors.
CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, M.D., said during the briefing that the work requirements are intended to spotlight the "dignity of work" and that Medicaid has inadvertently become a "permanent landing spot" for many able-bodied adults.
"Community engagement is far more than a policy prescription," he said. "It represents a generational opportunity for us to empower able-bodied Americans."