Senate committee advances bill to reshape Idaho Medicaid after hours of testimony

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to send House Bill 345, the Medicaid Affordability and Healthcare Access Act, to the Senate floor with a due‑pass recommendation after more than three hours of testimony and questions from senators.

Representative Jordan Redmond, sponsor of the bill, told the committee the measure aims to contain growth in Idaho’s Medicaid budget by adding comprehensive managed care, Medicaid cost sharing, provider practice‑authority protections and site‑neutral payments while removing several provisions from an earlier House measure. "This bill truly does offer immediate savings to the taxpayers as well as substantial long term savings and stability to the Medicaid budget," Representative Jordan Redmond said.

The bill would, among other changes described by Redmond, repeal last year’s House Bill 3398 and replace it with language giving the Department of Health and Welfare authority to adopt temporary rules to implement changes. It would authorize a managed‑care model covering the whole Medicaid population, add a work requirement for the expansion population (with stated exceptions), require eligibility verification twice a year for some enrollees, and include protections for federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and critical access or rural emergency hospitals.

The committee heard from more than two dozen witnesses representing state agencies, health providers, disability advocates and Medicaid enrollees. Christine Pisani, director of the Idaho Council on Developmental Disabilities, urged caution and asked that the disability community be included in managed‑care planning: "It is imperative that the disability community be included in the development of managed care as it relates to the many ways this legislation proposes changes for children and adults with disabilities and seniors." Pisani also asked how the bill would…