{"id":302143,"date":"2025-11-22T20:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T20:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/302143\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T20:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T20:35:10","slug":"department-of-health-and-welfare-sued-after-cuts-to-mental-health-crisis-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/302143\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Health and Welfare sued after cuts to mental health crisis funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

IDAHO \u2014 Multiple behavioral health providers are suing the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare over a billing change to Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) that the providers say effectively ends the bundled ACT benefit for Medicaid patients.<\/p>\n

The ACT program serves individuals with “severe mental illness” who are deemed a threat to themselves or those around them. It is described as a “last resort” treatment for patients. <\/p>\n

According to the legal document, the plaintiffs claim that without the ACT program, patients are at elevated risk of ending up in hospitals, homeless services, or criminal custody.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Providers warn of public safety threat as Idaho slashes Behavioral Health funding<\/a><\/p>\n

The petition cites that the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare reduced Medicaid reimbursement rates by 4% in 2025. <\/p>\n

When the providers went to look at the ACT treatment for patients, they were notified that ACT treatment “will no longer be billable”. <\/p>\n

The plaintiffs argue that this change was made without the required public notice or comment periods, violating Medicaid regulations and state administrative procedures. <\/p>\n

The lawsuit says eliminating the bundled ACT benefit would increase public\u2011safety risks and asks the court to block the change, while restoring bundled ACT reimbursement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IDAHO \u2014 Multiple behavioral health providers are suing the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare over a billing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,63,79404,137,7735,172614,514,172616,515,172615],"class_list":{"0":"post-302143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boise","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-idaho","13":"tag-idaho-department-of-health-and-welfare","14":"tag-mental-health","15":"tag-mental-health-resources","16":"tag-mentalhealth","17":"tag-treasure-valley"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}