In this Issue...

Idaho Application for Rural Health Funds Targets Workforce, Access, and Chronic Disease
"This Perfect Storm:" How Idaho Medicaid Cuts Could Affect Everyone's Health Care Access
Idaho Rural Workforce Support Forum
AMA Advocacy Update Spotlight on Government Shutdown Ending

Idaho Application for Rural Health Funds Targets Workforce, Access, and Chronic Disease

The Governor's Office and the Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) have submitted Idaho's application for a portion of the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) funding authorized by the federal H.R. 1 Act.

The Department's proposal seeks $200 million per year for five years to fund initiatives to advance rural health and informed by public input. DHW gathered input via a survey portal open to all Idahoans from 9/5/25 to 9/30/25, garnering over 500 responses and revealing three clear priorities: workforce, healthcare access and chronic disease prevention. Based on this feedback, the application includes five initiatives that are in alignment with grant funding requirements:

Improving rural access to care through technology
Ensuring accessible quality care through innovative models
Sustaining rural workforce with training, recruitment, and retention
Implement population-specific, evidence-based projects to Make America Healthy Again
Investing in rural health infrastructure and partnerships

The application calls out several unique challenges facing rural Idaho, including:

655,070 individuals, or 36% of the state's overall population, reside in rural census tracts
98.2% of Idaho's land area is designated as a Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA)
100% of Idaho's land area and population fall within a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area, and Idaho's overall suicide rate ranks 4th in the nation
In rural Idaho, 69% of EMS providers are volunteers

Prior to being made public, IMA was asked by the Department to provide general written support that would be included in the application to CMS. You can read that letter by clicking HERE.

After the state receives CMS approval, which is expected no later than December 31, 2025, the Governor will submit a budget request to the Legislature. If appropriated, the Department can begin initiating a subgrant solicitation process for the funds. The Department expects this process to begin towards the middle of April.

IMA will continue to monitor and provide updates throughout the process.

"This Perfect Storm:" How Idaho Medicaid Cuts Could Affect Everyone's health care access

The federal 'big, beautiful bill,' the biggest Medicaid cut, paved the way for changes the Idaho Legislature wants

November 4, 2025

By: Kyle Pfannenstiel, Idaho Capital Sun

In February 2024, the Idaho Legislature debated a bill that would've probably repealed Medicaid expansion.

Without the program -- which expanded the public assistance program to more low-income earners -- John Barnes told lawmakers, "I may not be here."

Only parts of that bill eventually made it into a sweeping Medicaid cost control law that passed this year.

But with all the cuts coming to Idaho Medicaid, Barnes said he still worries he'll lose Medicaid.

"When I do have chest pain or something, and go to the ER, and then I worry, "Is this gonna be the time they send me a bill that I can't pay?" he told the Idaho Capital Sun in an interview.

In the coming weeks and years, a slew of cuts will hit Idaho Medicaid and health care: to doctor pay cuts, reforms from a state law this year, federal cuts from the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," and potentially expiring insurance subsidies.

And many advocates say everyone will be affected, not just the nearly 346,000 Idahoans on Medicaid.

Advocates for hospitals, nursing homes and Medicaid patients paint a similar picture. The cuts, they say, will create a ripple effect that strains the health care system -- predicting more people will become uninsured, some medical providers might close, and private insurance rates will rise as hospitals try to offset the costs of caring for uninsured people. READ MORE

Idaho Rural Workforce Support Forum

Save the Date!

The Idaho Academy of Family Physicians is offering the first of four planned virtual forums for rural healthcare providers and health systems. In the IAFP's recent survey, with results from 21 of Idaho's Critical Access Hospitals, 90% of respondents indicated interest in these forums. Both administrators and all types of medical providers are encouraged to attend.

January 8, 2026

5:00 PM Pt / 6:00 PM MT

Topic: Obstacles and Solutions for Nursing Staffing

Dr. Peter Crane, a family physician in Montpelier, ID will facilitate a conversation about how nurse staffing issues impact workforce and care delivery in Idaho and support sharing solutions to this issue.

CLICK HERE to pre-register for this virtual forum

Questions? Contact liz@idahoafp.org

Advocacy Update Spotlight on Government Shutdown Ending

Congress ends longest congressional shutdown and includes short-term extension of key Medicare policies

After more than 40 days, the longest shutdown of the federal government caused by a lapse in appropriations funding ended on Nov. 12 following congressional passage of H.R. 5371, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2026. Despite the prolonged federal shutdown, H.R. 5371 only fully funds the Department of Agriculture, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense's Military Construction activities, and legislative branch for the entirety of the 2026 fiscal year, which ends on Oct. 1, 2026. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received full funding due to its inclusion in the Department of Agriculture appropriations bill. Congress, however, only allocated funding for the remainder of the federal government, including the Department of Health and Human Services, through Jan. 30, 2026.

H.R. 5371 does include temporary extensions of numerous AMA-supported provisions that expired on Oct. 1 due to the inability of Congress to pass compromise legislation. More specifically, all existing telehealth flexibilities (i.e., suspension of the statutory geographic and originating site restrictions originally enacted during the COVID-19 public health emergency), the hospital-at-home waiver, and 1.0 work geographic practice cost index (GPCI) floor were extended through Jan. 30. In addition, the Community Health Center Fund, National Health Service Corps (NHSC), Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program (THCGME), as well as the Special Diabetes Program for Type 1 Diabetes and Native Americans, was also extended until the end of January 2026. The new Jan. 30 deadline also extends the moratorium on data reporting requirements and associated payment cuts to the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule that were initially implemented following the passage of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) of 2014. READ MORE

Family/Internal/Sports Medicine Provider for Pioneering Health Center

Practice Highlights: Unique opportunity to care for a health-conscious population of first responders and their family members (ages birth-65).

Deliver preventive and primary care, spanning in-depth, duty-specific Annual Wellness Exams; leading-edge cardiac and cancer screenings; occupational/sports medicine; and broad-spectrum family medicine care.

Collaborate with physical therapy, exercise physiology, mental health, massage therapy, and acupuncture professionals in dynamic, multi-disciplinary outpatient setting.

About Emergency Responders Health Center: Safeguard the lives of those who safeguard our local communities, with ERHC. Established in Boise in 2004, ERHC is regarded as our region's leader in first responder medicine. ERHC is the provider of choice for nearly 40 fire, law enforcement, and paramedic departments, and cares for a patient panel of more than 8,000 responders and their spouses and dependents. ERHC's practice model spans "360 degrees of care" from preventive health and wellness, occupational medicine, primary and urgent care, physical therapy and Workers' Compensation case management, to mental health services and workforce wellness consultation. Based on continued growth ERHC has opened a second southwestern Idaho clinic in Nampa, increasing convenience for patients across the Treasure Valley.

For more information, visit https://er-hc.org/careers.

(208) 344-7888

info@idmed.org