Idaho is changing its plans for Medicaid reimbursement rate cuts that had been scheduled to take effect Feb. 1, the Idaho Statesman reports, because of concerns that they will make it harder for people with severe disabilities to get in-home care. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced on its blog Tuesday that it plans to study the costs of providing care before moving ahead with a large reduction in rates that Medicaid pays in-home care providers.

Almost 200 people in Idaho receive the “intense” level of services, writes Statesman reporter Audrey Dutton; all but 32 have one-on-one care. Medicaid will pay $455 a day for care to those individuals, until it completes a cost survey. You can read Dutton’s full report here. Health & Welfare officials told legislative budget writers this week that the change means the Medicaid program won’t be reverting $3 million to the state general fund for the current fiscal year and another $3 million next year, as had been anticipated, because of the uncertainty about the outcome of the rate study, which will take about six months.

Many providers pushed back when the department announced the cuts in December, which followed a court decision. Providers were especially critical of a reduction in daily payments for “intense” services, Dutton reports, to $270 from almost $500 per patient, saying they could not afford to continue providing one-on-one, around-the-clock care at those rates.