Idaho Bills

Adds to existing law to provide for legislative approval of Medicaid state plan amendments and waivers.

Adds to existing law to establish a medicaid legislative review panel.

Adds to existing law to create a medicaid budget stabilization fund.

The Medicaid Budget Stabilization Fund sets up a place for unobligated general fund moneys remaining in the cooperative welfare funds to be deposited after reconciliation and statute distributions. These funds shall be distributed by legislative appropriation.

States findings of the Legislature and directs the Department of Health and Welfare to develop, apply for, and report on waivers for Medicaid and to develop work requirements for waivers.

This resolution recognizes that Idahoans want to be self reliant when it comes to receiving health care benefits. But circumstances sometimes have consequences that interfere with that resilience and individuals find themselves in need of medical assistance. Helping these people gain back the independence they desire is what the Idaho Legislature is proposing in conjunction with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

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.