States Use Federal Waivers to Expand Health Care Resources to Confront COVID-19

The federal government has offered Medicaid waivers to give states critically-needed flexibility to quickly increase their health care workforces by relaxing licensing requirements and expanding their practice sites to serve more patients.

Across the nation, states are responding to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic using flexibility permitted by federal waivers and maximizing their resources as they work collaboratively with municipalities, health plans, hospitals, and marketplaces to address the severity of the COVID-19 epidemic within their borders.