BOISE, ID – A draft bill to reinstate an Idaho Medicaid program that some lawmakers say the Legislature accidentally cut is stalling.

As part of the Idaho Legislature’s sweeping Medicaid cost-cutting bill passed into law last year, the state in January ended a program that was meant to help patients avoid unnecessary trips to the emergency room.

Sen. Brandon Shippy, a Republican from New Plymouth, told the Idaho Capital Sun that he isn’t sure if his bill to temporarily reinstate the Healthy Connections program has a chance during a tight budget year. He says some members of the Legislature’s budget committee, called the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, have told him there’s no way to fund the program right now.

“I don’t know that there’s going to be the heart there to do it,” Shippy said in an interview Friday. “I think it would be the wise and prudent thing for us to fund and to reinstate this year, and it may be even a case for tapping into rainy day funds.”

Reinstating the program would save Idaho money, says East Idaho Republican who worked on bill

Reinstating the program would likely save the state much more than it’d cost to bring Healthy Connections back, said Brian Parsons, who is working with Shippy on the bill. Parsons is vice chair of the Bannock County Republican Party, and his wife is a pediatrician in Pocatello.

Parsons estimated the program would cost the state about $6.3 million each year, out of a total program budget of $24 million that is largely federally funded, but would save the state between $150 and $400 million each year.

“This is the cost containment tool the state of Idaho gave to primary care to keep Medicaid … the budget from blowing up,” he told the Idaho Capital Sun in an interview.

Pediatricians say they were hit hard by the cut, the Idaho Capital Sun reported. In response to a survey by the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Idaho chapter last year, many pediatric clinics said they might have to limit how many Medicaid patients they treat, and some may stop taking Medicaid altogether.

The Idaho Capital Sun obtained a draft of the bill through a public records request. In an August email to Department of Health and Welfare officials, bill drafter Kyle Slominski with the Legislative Services Office forwarded a draft of a bill to reinstate the program by Parsons.

The cut was meant to be a handoff on care coordination.

Under the program, called Healthy Connections, Idaho Medicaid paid some doctor’s offices to be available around the clock to consult about health issues. Last year’s law called for Idaho to shift to private companies managing Medicaid benefits.

But last summer, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare officials told lawmakers that it’ll take until 2029 for the state to fully shift to private Medicaid management, called managed care. Some lawmakers didn’t think it’d take that long, said Sen. Julie VanOrden, a Pingree Republican.

VanOrden, chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, said before Shippy’s bill would be introduced, she needs assurance from the Legislature’s budget committee on how to fund the program. Right now, she said she doesn’t see a path forward for the bill.

“With budget cuts right now, I don’t see one,” she told the Sun on Friday.

Shippy’s bill would only reinstate the program from this January until 2029, or the big managed care contract launches.

This story first appeared on Idaho Capital Sun.