Summary
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA; P.L. 111-5) contained provisions that increase Medicaid grants to states for 27 months by increasing their federal medical assistance percentages (FMAPs), the share of state programs paid by the federal government. Bonus adjustments, one component of the FMAP increases, can change each quarter based on state unemployment rates. The preliminary quarterly unemployment bonuses are calculated when preliminary unemployment data for the month prior to the start of the quarter are released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Those quarterly FMAPs are recalculated once final unemployment data for the month are available.