Legislative budget panel approves Medicaid supplementals, advances FY2026 funding and HB345 reporting language

At a legislative budget committee meeting, the panel approved one-time supplementals to the Division of Medicaid and advanced a broader FY2026 Medicaid funding package that includes ongoing hospital assessment funding, increased actuarial and IT project appropriations, and reporting requirements tied to House Bill 345.

Alex Williamson, budget and policy analyst with Legislative Services, described the FY2025 supplementals as a single collective motion and listed the major items rolled into it, including a managed-care external quality review contract, implementation costs for the Idaho Behavioral Health Plan, updated Medicaid forecast costs, a capitation rate increase for the behavioral health plan, and an additional hospital assessment deposit to enable the state to draw federal matching funds. "This is a federal requirement," Williamson said of the managed care external quality review, and she described the hospital assessment appropriation as the mechanism that lets hospitals transmit assessment funds so the state can draw federal dollars under the upper payment limit methodology.

The committee approved the FY2025 supplemental motion and later approved the FY2026 program maintenance package. The FY2025 supplemental was described on the…