Amends existing law to establish provisions for directed payments to qualifying hospitals.

This legislation authorizes the Department of Health and Welfare to seek approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to establish a program for state directed payments under Idaho’s Managed Care statute. Directed payments are the mechanism that states with managed care plans use to provide supplemental payments to hospitals to offset losses associated with providing services to Medicaid patients. The Idaho Behavioral Health Plan is the first time that hospitals have been contracted through a managed care program.