After 4 patients died, Idaho governor approves restoring cut Medicaid mental health programs

BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Thursday signed into law a bill to restore Medicaid mental health treatment programs that the state cut to comply with the governor’s order for budget cuts.

In less than three months since an Idaho Medicaid contractor cut a mobile treatment program for people with severe mental illness, four patients died, the Idaho Capital Sun reported. In the 18 months before the cut, providers say just one patient died. The program was designed for people who have struggled in routine treatment settings.

Senate Bill 1446 would spend one-time legal settlement funds to reinstate the mobile treatment program, called the Assertive Community Treatment program, and peer support services, which help people navigate mental health treatment.

As the 2026 legislative session was defined by deep spending cuts across state government to avoid a budget shortfall and make room for One Big Beautiful Bill Act tax cuts, the move to reinstate the cut mental health programs stands out as an exception to the hawkish fiscal attitudes in the Statehouse. Medicaid disability providers took nearly $22 million in pay cuts this year. And the Legislature didn’t consider bills to reinstate other cut health care programs, including for kids with disabilities.

The mental health programs’ reinstatement follows warnings by health providers and sheriffs, two lawsuits, admissions that the cuts likely won’t save the state money long-term, and denials by state officials that services for people with severe mental illness were cut.

“We acknowledge the State’s budget challenges which are self-inflicted by an overly aggressive tax reduction stance of the Legislative Branch and a complicit Executive Branch continuing to reduce tax revenue creating a budget shortage,” Bonneville County Sheriff Samuel Hulse, the president of the Idaho Sheriffs’ Association, wrote to legislative leaders and the governor in December. He warned the cuts “represent a significant public-safety concern.”

Cuts can be directly tied to the deaths, Republican senator says

Soon after the cuts were announced by an Idaho Medicaid contractor, providers and the Idaho Sheriffs’ Association warned the cuts would risk public safety, and providers said the cuts would drive up other costs even more. Eastern Idaho crisis centers saw demand spike after the cuts.

Since then, providers have pushed for the programs to be reinstated — and several state lawmakers have talked about the deaths as the Legislature mulled other budget cuts.

The budget bill appropriates funding for the cut programs for next fiscal year, which starts in July. The programs are also on track to be reinstated this fiscal year if the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare transfers enough funding internally, which the agency has said is possible.

Idaho Falls Republican Sen. Kevin Cook cited the patient deaths in his pitch for bringing the programs back.

Since the programs were cut, “we have had four deaths that you can pinpoint directly back to these programs that were done away with,” Cook told senators. “Our sheriffs, our ERs and our courts are dealing with the same individuals over and over again. These are frequent flyers … because this system designed to stabilize them was taken away.”

A bill to reinstate the program in state law, introduced in February by Shelley Republican Rep. Ben Fuhirman, never got a committee hearing. But, he said the funding through the budget bill will help Idaho communities.

“Because of this funding, people who truly need this level of support will continue to receive it, and our communities will be safer and stronger because of it,” Fuhriman said in a statement. “But the work is not done. We still have major mental health challenges across Idaho, and we need to keep finding ways to properly fund and protect these programs so we never end up in this position again.”

Ric Boyce, who was among a group of clinic owners and providers that pushed for the programs to be brought back, said Cook and Fuhriman “worked tirelessly” to bring the Assertive Community Treatment program back.

In February, when a reporter asked the governor whether he would’ve handled his cuts differently after the first two patient deaths were reported, the governor said “hindsight’s a great thing.”

At the time, Little told reporters it’s tough to anticipate the “unintended consequences.”

For next fiscal year, the bill allocates $4.6 million in tobacco settlement funds and $5.8 million in opioid settlement funds for the programs. The federal government will pay most of the costs to reinstate the programs — an estimated $20.5 million out of the total nearly $31 million in costs.

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare spokesperson AJ McWhorter previously told the Sun that the agency has enough one-time savings to restore the services this fiscal year if JFAC’s bill becomes law.

3 of the deaths were men in their 40s

At least three of the deaths were men in their 40s, providers told the Idaho Capital Sun.

The provider for the fourth patient who died, Meredith Sievers, found out he had died after he missed an appointment. He had gone down to once-a-week visits after the cuts.

“He was actually doing really well,” Sievers told the Sun. “Had achieved sobriety in the last couple of years. Was starting to go back to work. And was working toward becoming a recovery coach for people with other substance use disorders.”

After the third death, the owner of the clinic that treated him, Laura Scuri, told the Sun it was preventable. And she said she worried the cuts could spur a violent critical incident as people with severe mental health issues lose accessible treatment.

“I’m worried it’s gonna be a child. Some innocent kid that was in the wrong place at the wrong time is going to cross paths with someone who’s actively psychotic and get hurt,” Scuri said.

The first death was also preventable, Boyce, the owner of Chubbuck-based clinic Mental Health Specialists, wrote in a federal court declaration. The patient, he wrote, died after complications following a minor surgical procedure — after declining follow-up care or sticking to a treatment plan.

If the ACT program was still in place, Boyce wrote his staff would “have identified the increased risk associated with the post-surgical complications” and involve “appropriate medical staff as needed.”

Instead, one of his clinicians visited the patient’s house and saw their funeral, Boyce wrote.

Then that same clinician went to visit the home of another former patient on the ACT program to find them “experiencing an acute psychiatric emergency, requiring immediate transport to a hospital for evaluation and stabilization,” he wrote.

Why a state contractor cut the Medicaid programs

State health officials have denied the entire Assertive Community Treatment program was cut, saying services are still available. But some providers say the services that are still available aren’t what the evidence-based program was like, because providers aren’t paid to staff mobile treatment teams.

The contractor, Magellan, had its pay rate reduced by the Department of Health and Welfare as part of Medicaid provider pay cuts last year, after Gov. Brad Little ordered state budget cuts. Magellan cut the services in December.

The governor’s budget chief, Lori Wolff, told the Sun in February that preventive services are often the first to go when the state faces a budget crunch — because they are one of few options the state has.

In December, the state’s Medicaid director told lawmakers that health officials aren’t sure the cuts will save the state money long-term.

About 200 people in Idaho are on the ACT program, Magellan Healthcare’s Idaho Executive Director David Welsh wrote in a December declaration in response to a federal lawsuit by patients.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.