Representatives of the Idaho Intergovernmental Insurance Authority (IIIA) delivered the trust’s annual briefing to the McCall City Council, reporting membership growth, program performance and several clinical and fiscal highlights.

Amy (IIIA) presented the trust’s annual snapshot: membership has grown to roughly 114 agencies and covers about 6,500 members (including spouses and dependents). The trust’s annual budget was reported at just under $38 million for the previous year. The IIIA described several program areas that produced clinical and financial benefits, including telehealth, prescription rebates, digital physical therapy and an expanded mental‑health program.

Telehealth and mental‑health programs
IIIA noted telehealth had 4,185 calls in the plan year; staff estimated those calls likely avoided roughly $305,000 in claims that would have been incurred had members used urgent care or emergency departments instead. Amy said telehealth is a 24/7 benefit that can prescribe medications and is especially valuable in rural areas.

IIIA also described growing utilization of mental‑health services: the trust documented about 2,800 EAP visits and 68 on-site mental‑health and wellness trainings in the plan year. The brief noted rising inpatient behavioral-health use among children covered by member plans—IIIA reported 30 inpatient behavioral-health episodes (11 employees, 3 spouses, 16 children) with clinical reasons including suicidal ideation, anxiety and depression; IIIA outlined care pathways including inpatient stabilization, transfers, travel assistance and step‑down to intensive outpatient programs.

Preventive screening and clinical outcomes
IIIA highlighted outcomes from wellness screenings that the trust runs on-site at member agencies: the program detected elevated PSAs, positive colorectal screening tests, new diagnoses of type 2 diabetes, elevated lipid panels and multiple potential skin‑cancer findings. The report noted two stage‑1 melanomas were detected in the most recent screenings and earlier detections in prior years; trust staff said missed screenings for some members correlated with worse outcomes in other cases.

Finances and governance
Amy said prescription rebate negotiation, stop‑loss coverage for catastrophic claims, and modest reserve levels (incurred‑but‑not‑paid reporting) are part of the trust’s financial controls. The board reported a five‑year trend showing average renewal of about 6.2% versus a medical inflation estimate of about 6.5% in Idaho, and described plans to move to a new pharmacy benefit manager (Smith Rx) and make other operational improvements (new accounting and enrollment software, redesigned website).

Why this matters: Many McCall employees are covered through IIIA membership; the trust’s rural‑service emphasis (telehealth, digital PT, on-site screenings and regional mental-health teams) is designed to reduce high-cost care and improve access where urgent care and specialty services are limited.

Council response
Council members and the mayor commended the trust’s preventive and mental‑health efforts, particularly the telehealth and dermatology screening programs. A councilmember noted the rural dermatology access issue and supported more frequent on-site skin checks. Amy thanked the city for its participation on the board and said IIIA will continue to expand regional mental‑health teams and member services.

Speakers quoted in this article are limited to those who identified themselves in the meeting record.