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State hospitals accredited; committee hears rising civil-commitment costs and pressure on beds

2390177 · January 20, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Analysts and the Department of Health and Welfare reported that all three state psychiatric hospitals have accreditation and are billing Medicaid, but the committee heard that civil-commitment costs and restoration-to-competency cases have grown substantially and are driving supplemental funding requests.

Alex Leanson, Legislative Services Office budget analyst, presented the Division of Psychiatric Hospitalization budget and told the committee all three state psychiatric hospitals—State Hospital South (Blackfoot), State Hospital North (Orofino), and State Hospital West (Nampa)—provide short- and long-term care and rely heavily on personnel and operating funding.

Department of Health and Welfare Director Alex Adams confirmed the three facilities have accreditation and said that accreditation allows hospitals to bill Medicaid, producing federal receipts that reduce general-fund need. Adams told the committee State Hospital West has billed about $1.6 million and received $1.3 million to date, reducing general-fund…

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