JFAC approves $415.2 million in Medicaid FY2025 supplementals; greenlights $674.2 million FY2026 package

The Idaho Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved one-time supplementals for the Department of Health and Welfare’s Division of Medicaid for fiscal year 2025 totaling $415,226,800 and a FY2026 maintenance package totaling $674,192,600, the committee’s clerks said during roll-call votes.

The measures fund a range of Medicaid obligations, including a managed-care external quality review required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, updates to the Medicaid expenditure forecast, capitation-rate increases for the Idaho Behavioral Health Plan, and transfers to the hospital assessment fund to draw additional federal matching dollars.

Alex Williamson, budget and policy analyst with Legislative Services, told the committee the FY2025 supplementals include an external quality review contract, system-configuration costs tied to the Idaho Behavioral Health Plan, an updated Medicaid forecast and an increase to behavioral-health capitation rates, along with additional assessments to support hospitals’ upper payment limit calculations. Williamson presented the spending items and the fiscal packet on the committee’s “purple packet.”

"This is a federal requirement," Williamson said while describing the managed-care external quality review. "The Idaho Behavioral Health Plan went live this last July. There’s been implementation costs related with that go…