Welcome to our first edition of 5 Things We’re Watching in Idaho health care and health policy. This is our effort to share meaningful market and policy intelligence with senior health care executives and health policy leaders across the state.
Health Policy Commons is nonpartisan, policy agnostic, and multi-silo. It’s a state-level news site and conference series for folks at work to build a better health care system. Not everything we feature will be perfect for you. But, we’re hoping you find at least one thing smart and worthwhile each issue that you haven’t found elsewhere.
Thanks for giving us a short. I appreciate it.
There are few organizations in the country of comparable size — public or private — that run as lean of an operation as does the Dept. of Health and Welfare. DHW’s Director, Juliet Charron, sat for an interview with us, and explained that her $6 billion agency operates on “approximately 2% or less administratively, meaning that’s what we’re allocating for our personnel resources, but even functions in the IT space and contractor supports. So, very, very lean.”
Charron talked about administering Rural Health Transformation funds (more below), and the scope of moving to “comprehensive managed care.” I think her discussion of “Idaho values” is particularly worthwhile. That’s language the legislature used to guide the managed care procurement in H345.
As the smoke from the Spokane fires continues to pour into North Idaho, its worth considering how policy makers might learn from the fires three years ago in Maui and 19-months ago in Los Angeles. I drew three observations for policy makers as they consider the road ahead for Spokane, pulling from a number of sources and studies. I think some of the lessons apply equally for North Idaho as well.
It turns out it’s not just housing that takes a long time to recover. One stark comment came from a Maui physician: “I got kids that are like 10 years old with suicidal ideation.” And this: “We would be really naive if we don’t expect higher incidences of cancer here.”
We are excited to be hosting the 2026 Idaho Health Care Commons conference with some of the smartest folks in Idaho health care and health policy. This year’s event is on December 8th in Boise. Our Convening Panel will meet on September 1st to sort out topics, qualify sessions, and begin to identify speakers for the day’s event.
We make our agenda setting process as open and transparent as we can, so that the conversations are as timely and as practical as possible. So, now is the time: if you have ideas for topics to discuss on this year’s agenda, send ‘em my way! I read everything that hits my inbox, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Idaho has to “obligate” or award all of the $186m from year 1 of the federal Rural Health Transformation grant or it will lose them. Six new funding opportunities were made available this week for competitive procurement.
This means DHW has most of its planned procurements out but a few remain in development. In a presentation to stakeholders this week, DHW updated its progress in moving the dollars. It’s a good problem to have, but it’s a challenge regardless: it’s a lot of federal money to move in a short period of time.
Some legislators grilled Faith Knowlton, Administrator of the Division of Insurance and Internal Support, over the performance of Regence in administering the state employee’s health plan. Her response: “Frankly, I’ve been doing this for … over 30 years. And they’re a really good partner. If we want something, they bend over backwards to get it to us.”
Knowlton gave a presentation which included concerns about costs for care at private equity-backed providers for state employees and beneficiaries. Referencing recent negotiations with Portneuf Hospital, Knowlton said: “Had we given them what they were requesting for an increase, it would have increased our entire health plan by 7%. The entire 65,000 members would see a 7% increase” to allow Portneuf to stay in the network.
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