No Delays For Idaho Medicaid Payments

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare won't suspend Medicaid payments to hospitals around the state, after all. A week ago, the agency announced it would suspend them for at least one week because an increase in claims was straining its funding. But Leslie Clement, administrator for the health insurance program for Idaho's poor and disabled, now says higher than expected receipts mean that all claims can be paid without carrying over any payments into the new fiscal year starting July 1^st. This would have been the second year her agency pushed back such payments to handle a budget crunch. Idaho is now expected to end the year with a tax revenue surplus because receipts have recovered more than legislators forecast.