The Enhanced Benefits Rewards Program in Florida: Is it Changing the Way Medicaid Beneficiaries Approach Their Health?

A key feature of Florida’s Medicaid Reform pilot is the Enhanced Benefits Rewards Program which provides each Medicaid beneficiary up to $125 a year in credits for certain healthy behaviors, such as keeping a doctor’s appointment. The credits may be applied to the purchase of health and personal care products at participating pharmacies. This policy brief analyzes the program reporting that it has been expensive to launch and slow to catch on, raising questions about its effectiveness and efficiency. It reports that though beneficiaries have earned $12.5 million in credits, only about 10 percent of those credits have been spent.

 

Joan Alker is the Executive Director of the Center for Children and Families and a Research Professor at the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy.

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