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What happened to the Idaho Health Data Exchange, and can other states learn from it?
Dr. Brian Crownover got a notification from the Idaho Health Data Exchange that his patient was in the emergency room. Crownover is a primary care doctor in the Boise area, but this patient was two hours away, in Twin Falls. The patient had a complicated mental health history, so when Crownover saw the notification, he […]
Idaho will soon have a federal attorney whose job is to help protect civil rights and combat hate
The team of Idaho attorneys who work on behalf of the federal government will soon include a civil rights lawyer — a role that hasn’t existed before. Hate crimes and civil rights violations are two of the areas Idaho’s U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit said his office would focus on, after Hurwit was appointed by President […]
Southwest Idaho medical group plans to stop seeing urgent-care patients at most clinics
Saltzer Health plans to stop offering walk-in urgent care at most of its clinics in Ada and Canyon counties, citing a need to focus on primary care as the region’s population grows. Saltzer’s primary care clinics in East Boise, Caldwell, North Meridian, South Meridian and North Nampa will instead be limited to patients with Saltzer’s […]
Go catch a fish, Idaho. No license necessary on Free Fishing Day, Saturday, June 10.
Idaho children can always fish without a license in Idaho. But teens and adults will be able to join the no-license-necessary fishing fun during Idaho’s annual Free Fishing Day: Saturday, June 10. “In the month leading up to Free Fishing Day, Fish and Game hatcheries stocked about 500,000 catchable rainbow trout throughout the state,” Idaho […]
Behind the spike in Idaho Medicaid costs: Pricey new drugs for hard-to-treat disorders
Lawmakers in charge of state budgets this year grilled officials from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare on why Medicaid spending had ballooned to $4.7 billion a year. The culprit wasn’t a surge in emergency room visits. It wasn’t a slew of back surgeries or hip replacements. It wasn’t even just because Idaho voters […]
Idaho’s average hourly wage is fast approaching $25 an hour
Idaho’s average wage for all occupations reached $24.69 per hour last year, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That hourly average is 7% higher than it was in 2021, the Idaho Department of Labor said in a release announcing the new data. The median wage rose about 4% from 2021, […]
More than 66,000 Idahoans who had pandemic-era protections are losing Medicaid
More than 66,000 people are set to lose Idaho Medicaid coverage, as the state undertakes a major review of eligibility following the end of the national public health emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s about 73% of the people whose Medicaid reviews Idaho has completed so far. The state has about 62,500 more reviews to […]
Families of transgender teen girls sue over Idaho’s ban on gender care for youth
The families of two transgender teens have sued Idaho officials in federal court to keep them from enforcing the state’s ban on gender care for youth — a law set to take effect in January. The Republican-led Idaho Legislature passed the law, known as House Bill 71, during this year’s legislative session. Idaho Gov. Brad […]
National grant puts $600,000 toward Payette community’s health care needs
A partnership of health care organizations will use a national grant to better meet the needs of the rural Payette area, according to a news release from the Western Idaho Community Action Partnership. WICAP won a national grant for more than $600,000 of funding and additional resources to address health disparities in Payette, the release […]
Lawyer exodus from AG’s office ‘has compromised’ Idaho health and welfare, says director
Six of the eight top attorneys assigned to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare have quit or been fired by Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador since March. Some of those lawyers made a loud exit, pointing to Labrador’s increasingly complicated relationship with a department he is legally required to represent. Labrador promised in his […]
Idaho joins lawsuit over illegal robocalls from Arizona business Avid Telecom
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador has joined nearly all U.S. states in suing a company and its officials over billions of illegal robocalls made to millions of people. An Arizona business known as Avid Telecom reportedly facilitated more than 24.5 billion calls between December 2018 and January 2023, including more than 7.5 billion calls to […]
Leadership changes at Idaho medical records organization as bankruptcy continues
A consultant from the Washington, D.C., area is no longer the director of Idaho’s central health records repository, the Idaho Health Data Exchange. Hans Kastensmith — managing partner of Capitol Health Associates, a consulting group based in Washington, D.C. — became executive director of the Idaho Health Data Exchange in October 2019. Jesse Meldru, who […]