Multiple state Medicaid programs have regained access to reimbursement portals after what the White House described as an "outage" on Jan. 28 that potentially affected more than 79 million Americans across Medicaid and CHIP.
Here are 10 things to know about the outage and what happens next:
1. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden's office was among the first to confirm that Medicaid portals maintained by HHS were down nationwide on Jan. 28, shortly after the Trump administration shared plans to pause agency grants, loans and other financial assistance programs.
2. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan temporarily blocked the funding freeze until Feb. 3.
3. The Trump administration said Jan. 27 that the freeze would not affect programs such as Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, student loans and scholarships, according to NBC 5 Chicago.
4. About two hours later after the outage began, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that, "The White House is aware of the Medicaid website portal outage. We have confirmed no payments have been affected — they are still being processed and sent. We expect the portal will be back online shortly."
5. Meanwhile, at least 20 states were unable to draw funds from the Medicaid payment system, The Washington Post reported. As of Jan. 29, some states had regained access to portals, though others continued to experience operational issues, according to The Hill. Some states reported no problems at all.
6. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said the state was shut out of Medicaid the morning of Jan. 28, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said in a Jan. 28 X post that the state's Medicaid payment system was "turned off."
"Doctors and hospitals cannot get paid," Mr. Murphy said. "Discussions ongoing about whether services can continue."
7. The portal issues came after the White House attempted to pause agency grants, loans and other financial assistance programs nationwide. The status of Medicaid in the pause, set to take effect at 5 p.m. Eastern time Jan. 28, was communicated with uncertainty.
8. While federal guidance published Jan. 27 said mandatory programs such as Medicaid and SNAP would continue, Ms. Leavitt said at a Jan. 28 news conference that she would "check back" to see if state Medicaid payments would be affected by the funding freeze.
9. In addition to the temporary pause put in place by Ms. AliKhan, 23 states have filed a lawsuit against the federal government to stop the funding freeze.
10. Medicaid, which provides health insurance coverage to low-income individuals, is funded jointly between the federal and state governments. The federal government matches state Medicaid spending through a formula called the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, which varies by state. States are reimbursed for Medicaid on a quarterly basis, but they can access funds more frequently through the HHS payment system. A prolonged freeze would force states to rely entirely on their own funds, posing a challenge for some.
Federal funds make up the largest share of total Medicaid spending in New Mexico, Mississippi, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Kentucky.