Jared Larson — Identifies himself as Chief of Staff of the Department of Health and Welfare and frames the session's docket progress.
Sasha O'Connell — Identified as the Division Administrator over Medicaid.
Eric Brown — Identified as a bureau chief in Medicaid.
Mark Harris — Senator Harris is called on and then makes a motion to accept docket 16-313-2201, which the chair immediately acknowledges as a motion from Senator Harris.
Mark Harris — Senator Harris is identified as the second on the motion.
Melissa Wintrow — Senator Wintrow is identified as having a question before the motion proceeds and is then recognized to speak, beginning her remarks with thanks to the chair during the motion discussion.
Mr. Larson — Mr. Larson is introduced for the record, then later referenced as the committee discusses the docket and asks him to confirm that the repeal and new rules are substantively the same.
Melissa Wintrow — Senator Wintrow raised stakeholder concerns about the rules, including the openness of negotiated rulemaking and the psychological evaluation portion, particularly the difficulty of meeting assessment timelines. She urged the department to be careful about gathering stakeholder input in future rulemaking and asked the committee and department to discuss the issue and work toward a solution without delaying the rules. She also requested brief testimony so the committee could better understand the psychological evaluation concern.
Camille Blaylock — The chair summarizes that Senator Blaylock seconded the motion.
subject matter experts — The department indicates experts are present to answer technical questions.
Joe Palmer — Referenced as having raised concerns about the size and complexity of the document.
Ilana Rubel — Addressed as the chair while explaining the prior session's consideration of the rules.
Robert Vanda Murwey — Identified himself as Executive Director of the Idaho Health Care Association and explained the association's concern about the rules.
Bridger Fly — Bridger Fly, CEO and Administrator of Community Care Incorporated in Meridian, Idaho, introduced himself and described a major problem for providers: psychological evaluations needed for eligibility determinations are taking four to seven months. He explained that these delays make it difficult to complete eligibility in time and prevent providers from receiving payment for services. He added that his organization is paying psychologists directly for these evaluations using Medicaid funds, but the process remains complicated.
Van Burtenshaw — Van Orden is addressed at the end of the exchange and then moves to approve Docket 16-036-026-2501, making this a single brief procedural moment centered on the docket approval.