State lawmakers are beginning to comb through contracts Idaho’s Medicaid program uses with outside organizations to find ways to save money.
The legislature last session passed a bill ordering the analysis, with recommendations and a report due to political leaders. The legislation doesn’t offer a deadline for those recommendations.
Idaho’s Medicaid Administrator, Juliet Charron, outlined several contracts the division uses to process payments, store data and stay compliant with state and federal law.
Those contracts add up to about two percent of the total $4.6 billion Medicaid bill. Idaho’s general fund share is more than $850 million.
Republicans, like co-chair Rep. John Vander Woude (R-Nampa), said they want to make sure seeing a good return on those contracts.
“I saw a list of all kinds of contracts that I had no idea they were there and the dollars, amounts, that we’re spending on those contracts are we getting the value out of, are we spending the money correctly?”
Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow (D-Boise) said she does, too. But she also wants the legislature to invest in more agency staffers and increase reimbursement rates for providers.
“If you have a lot of people doing care coordination and problem solving and those kind of things, then it decreases the amount of problems upstream. But that costs money. You get what you pay for,” Wintrow said.
Legislators said they don’t expect to meet again before the legislative session begins in January.
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