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Population shifts push up county/out‑of‑state placement and medical contract requests for corrections
Summary
IDOC told lawmakers population changes drove supplemental requests to cover county jail per diems and higher medical‑services utilization; officials warned contract renegotiation or rebidding could raise medical costs substantially.
The Idaho Department of Correction told the Joint Finance committee on Feb. 4 that population changes and higher medical utilization drove supplemental requests to cover county and out‑of‑state placements and medical services for people in custody.
Analyst Noah Peterson said county and out‑of‑state placement payments are population‑driven and that FY2025 supplemental requests sought to reconcile earlier projections with updated population counts. He described a set of FY2024–FY2026 adjustments that reflect changing headcounts rather than per‑diem rate changes.
Peterson highlighted the following:
- Population adjustments and supplementals: presentation materials showed a FY2024 supplemental reduction (a legislative reduction subsequently restored in the FY2025 base), and FY2025 supplemental increases tied to updated population projections. Peterson presented a FY2026 ongoing population‑driven request of about $4,027,900 to reflect projected population levels. - Per‑diem rates and billing: the presentation displayed county per‑diem charges of $57.50 for stays of 1–7 days, $77.50 for stays of 8 days or more, and about $84.45 for out‑of‑state placements. Director Tewalt clarified that those county rates are set in Idaho code (the director cited statutory language that uses $55 and $75 as the coded rates), and the bifurcated rate is intended to encourage quicker state pickup from county jails. - Medical services and contract negotiations: the agency is negotiating a new medical contract with its incumbent provider and used a scenario of a successful negotiation to model a roughly 10% increase in medical costs. Peterson said if negotiations fail and the contract goes to bid, the agency projects a 30–40% increase in the contract price; to cover updated utilization and projections the FY2025 supplemental included roughly $5.96 million for medical services adjustments.
Committee members asked analysts to explain how per‑diem rates are set; Peterson said the rate structure is tied to county billing and the director confirmed the rates are established in statute. The department recommended that supplemental requests be considered during the budget cycle because they reflect actual populations and medical utilization rather than policy changes.
