JFAC has voted unanimously, 19-0, this morning to set a budget for the first division of the huge Department of Health & Welfare to come up for budget-setting; it's the indirect support services division. Sen. Steve Bair, R-Blackfoot, and Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, crafted a budget for the division that includes $400,000 in state general funds for the first phase of the "Medicaid Readiness" project, but none for subsequent phases, which will wait until after the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the challenge to the national health care reform law, in which Idaho's a party. If there are further appropriations needed next year after the decision, the department would have to come back and request a supplemental appropriation.

The federal government is putting up 90 percent of the cost for the project, with just a 10 percent state match; that means Idaho would get $3.6 million to match its $400,000. It would go to updating the state's Medicaid computer system, including completing a switch from paper records to paperless. "Moving ahead with Medicaid readiness will achieve really good efficiencies that we would all benefit from, regardless of what happens," Jaquet said. Another piece of the Medicaid readiness work for next year will come up March 9 in the Division of Welfare budget.