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State hospitals accredited but civil-commitment costs prompt supplemental request
Summary
Officials told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that all three state psychiatric hospitals are now accredited and billing Medicaid, but civil-commitment and long-stay patients are driving a request for a one-time general fund supplemental estimated at $2.6 million for fiscal 2025.
Alex Williamson, presenting the Division of Psychiatric Hospitalization budget, said the three state hospitals — State Hospital North (Orofino), State Hospital South (Blackfoot) and State Hospital West (Nampa) — provide short- and long-term residential care and that the division is authorized roughly 467 full-time positions to staff those facilities.
Williamson described a fiscal‑year 2025 supplemental request for $2.6 million from the general fund to cover increased costs for mental holds and commitment services. She said Senate Bill 1327 of 2022 changed the state’s responsibility for payment: the state assumed costs previously borne by counties, and the department now requests supplemental authority to cover the higher expenditures.
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