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Health and Welfare requests transfer exemptions, cites Idaho Behavioral Health Plan delays and legal challenges
Summary
Department of Health and Welfare staff told the Joint Finance Corporation Committee they seek transfer exemptions and federal authority to access delayed grant funds tied to the Idaho Behavioral Health Plan, and said legal challenges and contract scale delayed the plan's rollout.
Alex Williamson, budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the Joint Finance Corporation Committee that the Department of Health and Welfare's Division of Mental Health Services is seeking authority to access federal grants related to the Idaho Behavioral Health Plan and an exemption from statutory program-transfer limits.
"This is 6,700,000 one-time federal funds to support the first year of the Idaho Behavioral Health Plan," Williamson said, describing a fiscal-year 2025 supplemental request and a smaller ongoing federal operating request for 2026.
The request follows a delayed go-live for the Idaho Behavioral Health Plan, which the analyst said went live in July 2024 after originally being slated for 2022. Williamson said federal grant awards were issued in connection with the go-live but the original appropriation timing precluded the department from accessing those funds without new legislative authority.
Alex Adams…
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