Idaho indigent care program seeing spike in costs, cases

NAMPA, Idaho – One of Idaho’s largest counties has seen the cost and caseload involving medical care for people without health insurance increase during the first few months of 2018.

Reports in Canyon County, the state’s second-most populous county, indicate the higher expenses are going to continue for counties statewide, the Idaho Press-Tribune reported .

Roger Christensen, who chairs the board for the Idaho indigent care program, told the state budget committee in February that his agency was predicting it would see around 790 cases in the fiscal year ending June 30.

The figure marks an increase from the 584 cases it saw in the previous fiscal year.

“They’ve gone up by quite a bit,” Christensen told the Press-Tribune. “We think one of the main reasons is we’re a payer of last resource. If there’s another resource, we don’t pay.”

For example, if someone has money in a bank account or a health insurance policy covering the type of care they received, then the indigent care program would not pay for it, the newspaper said.

If not, and if the patient qualifies for assistance from the county services program, then the county is legally obliged to cover up to $11,000 of the patient’s medical bills. All eligible costs above that are covered by the state, primarily through the general fund consisting of mostly income taxes.

The 202 medical applications Canyon County received in January, February and March exceeded the rate during the same time period last year by about 12 percent.

The average payment in January and February for each case exceeded $30,000.

The average medical case covered by Canyon County Indigent Services last year was $27,509. In October the average was nearly $45,000.

Joe Decker, public information officer for Canyon County, said rising medical costs is the main reason behind the increase.

“People that do have insurance will rely on their insurance to cover their costs,” Decker said, acknowledging the majority of the medical applications are from people who don’t have insurance.

“I think a lot of people think, ‘I’ve been healthy my whole life,’” he added. “‘I would rather pay the penalty than pay for service.’ And then they find themselves in a real difficult place and they make a (medical) application to the indigent fund.”