Commonwealth Foundation Joins Alliance to Combat Medicaid Fraud

This week, the Commonwealth Foundation officially joined a nationwide group of policy organizations that promote work, dignity, and upward mobility. The Alliance for Opportunity, formed in 2021, works with state and federal leaders to implement policy changes that reduce poverty.

The alliance works to shift the safety net from a scattered list of programs that discourage employment and attract fraud to an integrated work-first system with pathways to independence. Likewise, the Commonwealth Foundation focuses on safety-net reform and removing barriers to work.

By joining the alliance, we can learn from other states how to foster pathways to work and amplify those reforms for the benefit of all Americans. For example, the alliance highlighted Louisiana, where an audit found 82 out of 100 Medicaid enrollments were ineligible.

However, in Pennsylvania, the auditor general lacks the authority to conduct regular Medicaid eligibility and provider-performance audits to stop wasteful spending and improper eligibility determinations. That needs to change.

Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly support reform. Nearly 80 percent of the state supports more-frequent eligibility checks that certify recipients’ income, residency, and household composition twice a year.

Next year will prove a critical year for welfare reform as major provisions of the One Big Beautiful bill kick in. Beginning in January, all healthy adults on Medicaid will need to work, volunteer, or attend school part time. And beginning next October, states will see their federal funding for SNAP reduced if their payment error rate remains above 6 percent.

Challenges to these provisions and others that reward work and hold state administrators accountable are numerous. Just last month, the alliance called out efforts to pause state accountability for SNAP payment errors. In fact, work requirements and penalties for incorrect payments are already working!

Fewer Pennsylvanians rely on SNAP today, and the labor force is up 130,000 since November 2025. Payment errors have declined from over 10 percent in 2024 to 9.21 percent in 2025.

Yet, Pennsylvania has a long way to go. Too many Pennsylvanians are trapped in a cycle of poverty and dependence. We’re excited to formally partner with the alliance to implement the policy changes that will move more individuals off the sidelines into productive work that provides meaning, dignity, and purpose.