Idaho health officials outline requests to access federal Idaho Behavioral Health Plan funds, seek transfer exemptions

Alex Williamson, budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee the Department of Health and Welfare requested federal authority to access grants tied to the Idaho Behavioral Health Plan.

The Idaho Behavioral Health Plan (IBHP) went live in July 2024 after delays. The department is asking for a fiscal 2025 supplemental appropriation of $6,700,000 in one-time federal funds to support the first year of IBHP and a $261,400 ongoing federal funds enhancement for operating expenditures tied to grants administered by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Why it matters: the supplemental would let the department draw down federal grant money that was issued for the plan but originally appropriated to fiscal 2022 and therefore not available to use under current appropriations. Committee members questioned delays in procurement and contract awards; Department Director Alex Adams said legal challenges and the contract’s size delayed the award and that department staff prioritized getting the procurement right over speed.

Committee discussion highlighted two related concerns. First, Director Alex Adams said budget shortfalls tied to IBHP and other behavioral health costs have required the department to temporarily suspend some children’s mental health services earlier in the year to live within appropriations. Adams described the department’s legal constraints on moving money between object classes and programs and urged the committee to consider transfer authority so the agency could use underspent program funds to cover unforeseen shortfalls.

Second, the department requested a transfer-exemption for fiscal 2025 to override the 10% program-transfer limitation in Idaho Code §67-3511 and allow department-wide program transfers into adult and children’s mental health for unforeseen expenditures in the current fiscal year. The governor’s recommendation would also remove additional transfer limits for 2026 beyond those in §67-3511. Williamson told the committee the Division of Mental Health originally showed 305 FTP in the submitted slides but after prior committee actions the division’s FTP was 278.23.

Director Adams described the difference between entitlement programs (for example, Medicaid) and the gap-filling behavioral health budgets overseen by the division: Medicaid is a statutory entitlement that the state must pay when eligible people access services, while the behavioral health budget lines fill gaps for services Medicaid does not cover and for non‑Medicaid populations. The department said the requested transfer flexibility would allow it to move resources to cover obligations such as crisis and involuntary services without returning to the Legislature for a supplemental.

The committee did not take a recorded vote on the requested supplemental or the transfer-exemption language during this hearing; the items were presented for consideration as part of the division’s enhancement requests.

Ending: Committee members asked for more details about the IBHP contract history and procurement timeline; Director Adams and staff said they would provide follow-up information and that a fuller IBHP discussion is expected during the Medicaid budget hearing.