CMS's Oz Touts Nebraska Rural Health Funds, Early Work Requirements
CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz joined Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen at the State Capitol to highlight the state's rollout of a federal rural health grant program, which has distributed $177 million of its $218.5 million first-year award. Oz framed the program, funded at $50 billion nationally, as an effort to offset harm to rural communities from Medicaid cuts in the 2025 federal budget law, though critics say the funding doesn't cover estimated rural Medicaid losses and hospitals remain strained. Nebraska HHS Director Steve Corsi also reported the state's early-implemented Medicaid work requirements have dropped 600 to 900 people from coverage since June, far below the 25,000 to 40,000 some analysts had projected. Oz praised the state's approach as a model for moving Medicaid recipients "into prosperity" through work and reduced program spending.