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State hospitals accredited; committee hears rising civil-commitment costs and funding requests
Summary
Officials said all three state psychiatric hospitals are now accredited and are billing Medicaid, producing some federal receipts, but civil-commitment costs have risen since 2022 and the department requested a supplemental and fund shifts to cover higher obligations.
Alex Williamson, budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that psychiatric hospitalization is organized into community hospitalization and three state hospitals (State Hospital South in Blackfoot, State Hospital North in Orofino, and State Hospital West in Nampa) and that the division is authorized 467 FTP.
Williamson said the department requested a one-time $2,600,000 General Fund supplemental for civil-commitment expenditures in fiscal year 2025. The request responds to increased costs that followed a 2022 statutory change she identified as Senate Bill 1327 (2022), which shifted financial responsibility for certain mental-hold and commitment costs to the state.
Alex Adams, director of the Department of Health and Welfare, told the committee that all three state hospitals have now…
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