November 2019 legislative update

Regulatory Update

In continuing the effort to reduce regulations and clean up outdated laws Governor Little will be proposing the elimination of 10 license types during the 2020 legislative session ranging from cemetarians and athletic agents to weighmasters and salespersons of used manufactured homes.

Medicaid Reimbursement Update

Earlier this year IASCA met with and presented information to the Department of Health and Welfare with the objective of getting Medicaid rates for ambulatory surgical centers increased. We believe the results of this effort are a recommendation from the Department to the Governor’s office to increase Medicaid rates to 90% of Medicare rates. The next step in the process is to convince the Governor’s office to give high priority to the increase in his budget recommendation that he will present in January.

Several IASCA members and I met with Alex Adams the Director of Financial Management for Governor Little and had an excellent conversation. While it will be a tight budget year, this is a cost savings to the state in the long run so I am optimistic it will be recommended by the Governor and the first step in improving Medicaid reimbursement.

Medicaid Expansion in Idaho

November 1, 2019 is the day open enrollment begins for 2020 health plans purchased through the Your Health Idaho state insurance exchange. It’s also when people can start enrolling in the new expanded Medicaid program. More than 100,000 Idahoans purchased private health insurance plans through Your Health Idaho last year, for coverage in 2019. The bulk of them received federal tax credits, which lowered their monthly premiums by an average of 80 percent; a quarter of the customers paid nothing for the insurance.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare estimates that more than 90,000 Idahoans will qualify for the expanded Medicaid program. That includes about 18,000 people who this year purchased private insurance through Your Health Idaho. Idaho did propose a waiver to CMS that would allow people in the 100 percent to 138 percent income range to keep their private insurance and continue to receive the federal tax credits. However, that waiver has been denied.

Medical Debt Collections

The CEO of Melaleuca, Frank VanderSloot is pitching a proposal to put limits on medical debt collections.

Specifically, VanderSloot is proposing legislation to put limits on attorneys’ fees in medical debt cases; to require health care providers to send out bills and notify patients of services rendered within 30 days; and to require, within another 30 days after that, that a hospital or other health care facility send a patient a consolidated notice containing the names and contact information of all health care providers that are billing them. VanderSloot, is a well-known Idaho businessman and conservative political donor who is reported to be the richest man in Idaho. He has been pushing the issue since this spring, and legislators may well take it up.

There are discussions taking place between the House and Senate leadership on how to address the enormous volume of rules that need to be voted on this year. This includes ALL existing rules. I am hopeful this will be iron out, so the rules debates don’t go into February.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving,

Kris

August 2019 Update

Rules Update

Even though the legislature is not in session it has been a very busy summer for state agencies. Governor Little signed the Red Tape Reduction Act, as his first executive order in 2019 requiring all agencies to review rules and namely: 1. Remove any terms from the rules that are already set forth in statute; 2. Reduce the use of “shall” to only absolutely necessary circumstances; 3. Reorganize and streamline the application process for all licensees and 4. Omit all language that is outdated or repetitive.

This has led to the elimination of 141 chapters of rules, 886 pages of rules and the elimination of 19,536 restrictions on licensees. Many more rules are being simplified and the Governor’s office is anticipating at the end of the year there will be a 55-60% reduction or simplification in Idaho rules. Governor Little has also streamlined the rules process and is making it a more transparent process.

State Budget Update

Last week, the Division of Financial Management said 2019-20 state revenues could come in $96 million below projections. This would slash the budget reserve lawmakers set aside this spring, leaving a cushion of about $51 million. As a result, Governor Little has urged state agencies to limit their 2020-21 budget requests and identify two or three items that could be cut. This could jeopardize the possibility of eliminating the sales tax on groceries, increasing teacher pay, and increasing transportation funding.

Medicaid Update

The Department of Health and Welfare has been submitting waivers to CMS for Medicaid expansion and an interim committee has been discussing how to pay for the expansion and specifically if the County Indigent Funds could be used to help pay for the expansion. Medicaid has received requests from several provider groups for an increase in reimbursement. This includes IASCA. We are working with Medicaid and the Governor’s office on this effort and to show the potential savings to the state when ambulatory surgical centers are an option for Medicaid patients.

More and more, the 2020 legislative session is shaping up as a battle over dollars that are in unexpectedly scarce supply. I will keep you posted on the fiscal position of the state as it becomes known as well as the Medicaid increase.

Enjoy the rest of the summer,

Kris

Legislative Update May 22, 2019

Agency Rules

When the legislature adjourned last month, they did not pass the typical omnibus bill that would reauthorize all state agency rules. While any newly promulgated agency rules must be passed each year by the legislature, existing rules have always been reauthorized by the legislature to remain in effect for the following fiscal year. Due to some discord between the house and senate and other possible legal issues with how the rules are handled at the committee level that did not happen this year.

Therefore, the Governor’s office is asking every agency to evaluate their rules and submit them as temporary rules that will be published in a special June 19^th bulletin. These rules will have the twenty-one (21) day window for comment and will then attain temporary status and remain in effect.

All told there are about 8,500 pages of administrative rules containing 736 chapters that touch on just about every aspect of life; from DEQ, Dept. of Education, Idaho Lottery Division, Health and Welfare, etc. Many rules have been in effect for decades without a review. To handle the additional work, 77 rules review offices have been appointed by the various state entities to report their review and results to the Governor’s office. While this is not typical nor was it expected it is an opportunity to eliminate and update rules.

Interim Committees

Meanwhile the legislature did appoint several interim committees that will begin meeting in the next few months. The interim committees are:

• Capitol Services Committee
• Child Protection Legislative Oversight Committee
• Committee on Federalism
• Criminal Justice Reinvestment Oversight Committee
• Equitable Assessment of Costs Related to Medicaid Expansion
• Idaho Council on Indian Affairs
• Natural Resources Interim Committee
• Occupational Licensing and Certification Laws Committee

Newly Appointed Legislator

This week, Governor Little appointed Megan Kiska to the House seat that was vacated by Representative Tom Daley who took a position with the Federal Farm Services Agency. Megan is currently the inspector general and real property officer for the 124^th Fighter Wing in the Idaho Air National Guard where she is a captain.

Enjoy the spring,

Kris Ellis

Eiguren Ellis Public Policy Firm

Sine Die Report

April 12, 2019

After a long 95-day session, the legislature adjourned sine die on Thursday April 11^th. While there were a few accomplishments, overall the session was mired in disagreements between the House and Senate including Medicaid Expansion requirements, allowing Hemp to be transported across the state, providing new offices for the House of Representatives (currently they have only cubicles), and changing the requirements to get voter initiatives on the ballot.

Medicaid Expansion, after being passed by the voters in November, the legislature enacted the expansion of Medicaid to cover those earning between 100-138% of poverty, with a work requirement of 20 hours of work, volunteering, schooling, or combination of the options. The process not only took up much of the session but took 3 bills and 7 amendments before there were enough votes of support in both houses.

Similar battles on the transportation of hemp, and funding bigger offices for legislators both failed to pass.

After many hours of debate and several bill versions to change the Voter Initiative Process, a bill was passed by both the House and the Senate but was vetoed by the Governor. Governor Little cited constitutional concerns with the bills and the likelihood of lawsuits that were likely to come if the bills were enacted. The legislature did increase funding for education, and had a strong proposal to increase transportation funding, but with state revenues $75million below forecast the bill was held the last week of the session. Should revenues recover Senator Winder promised to bring it early in the 2020 legislative session.

Legislation of Interest

HB 9 Medical Practice Act Rewrite: This bill updates and modernizes provisions of the Medical Practice Act related to licensure, registration, discipline, disabled physicians or physician assistants, and member composition of the Board of Medicine and Physician Assistant Advisory Committee. For licensure, this bill removes barriers to practice by simplifying the requirements for expedited licensure by endorsement and removing the requirement that medical students be registered with the Board. This bill updates the discipline section to require more timely notification to the Board of felony criminal charges against a licensee and adds a disruptive provider clause, both of which the Board believes are necessary to protect the public adequately. This bill updates and simplifies the Disabled Physician Act by adding physician assistants and streamlining the Board’s evaluation process, which will benefit licensees with serious mental and physical illnesses who may otherwise face disciplinary action by the Board. Finally, the bill provides housekeeping updates to remove obsolete language, deletes duplicative language, streamlines the language throughout, and modernizes the requirements of the Act. This bill has been signed into law by Governor Little and will go into effect July 1, 2019.

HB 12 Opioid Antagonist: This legislation removes the terms prescriber and pharmacist from the law and allows other health professionals to deliver naloxone to individuals who may be in a position to help patients. This bill has been signed into law by Governor Little and will go into effect July 1, 2019.

HB 58 Drug Donations: This legislation will allow SNFs, ALs, ICFs, and individual to donate unused drugs in blister packs even if some of the blister packs have been used to free clinics or even back to the pharmacy. IHCA was the instigator of this legislation that was drafted by the Board of Pharmacy and supported the proposal. HB 58 was signed by the Governor and will go into effect July 1, 2019.

HB 242 Hospital Property Tax Exemption: This legislation would require a hospital to have 24-hour emergency care to be eligible for the property tax exemption. This bill was introduced quite late in the session and did not get a hearing.

SB 1034 Anti-Cancer Co-Insurance Parity: This legislation creates insurance parity for cancer treatment regardless of the treatment being intravenously administered, injected or orally taken. It directs the Department of Insurance to ensure regulated health plans where anti-cancer medication is covered to provide patient access to orally administered medication at no more than the cost of injected or intravenously administered medication. This bill was amended in the senate and passed the senate, but never received a hearing in the House Health and Welfare Committee.

SB 1068 Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs): PBMs are third party administrators under contract by health plans, employers and government entities to manage prescription drug programs for health plan recipients. PBMs decide which pharmacies are included in a prescription drug plan’s network and how much the pharmacy will be paid for dispensing services. Idaho is one of just five states that do not regulate or have any oversight at all over PBMs. This bill will require PBMs that operate in Idaho to register with the Department of Insurance. It also gives pharmacists more flexibility in informing patients how they can pay less out-of-pocket for prescriptions. Today, PBMs prohibit pharmacies from discussing prescription cost options with their patients. Recently, legislation passed and was signed into law at the federal level prohibiting “gag clauses” on Medicare Part D and Advantage plans, but State legislation is still needed for all other insurance. This bill has passed the Senate but was killed in the House Health and Welfare Committee. The proponents of this bill will definitely be working on this issue again next year. Apparently, Idaho is the only state that does not recognize Pharmacy Benefit Managers.

HB 248 Occupational Licensing Reform: This legislation has been revised from HB 143. It declares it to be the policy of the state to adopt a comprehensive and proactive approach to reducing barriers to occupational licensing. It would require the licensing authority to accept relevant military education and training or service be counted towards the qualifications to receive a license. It would require an expedited process for licensing members of the military, former military or military spouses, and it would require licensing authorities to establish a procedure of endorsement for members of the military, former members of the military or their spouses. HB 248 has been signed by the Governor and will go into effect July 1, 2019.

It has been a pleasure to represent IASCA this past legislative session.

Sincerely,

Kris Ellis

March 26, 2019 IASCA Medicaid Update

Shane, Debbie, Dr. Christensen and I had a very productive meeting with Medicaid on Monday. The Department of Health and Welfare is working towards changing the Medicaid reimbursement for ASCs to be a percentage of Medicare or mirror that of Medicare effective July 1, 2019. Everyone emphasized the need to have it not be a percentage of Medicare, and in fact should be Medicare plus a percentage. This will continue to be negotiated over the next several weeks. Phase 1 of this process will only include those procedures that are currently reimbursed to ASCs by Medicare. For Phase 2 we will look at reimbursement for implants. The department is not opposed to reimbursement for the implants, but it may take a little more time to work out what the reimbursement looks like. Phase 3 could include looking at have procedures that are not currently reimbursed by Medicare but reimbursed by Medicaid. This would likely require a statute change.

We discussed how to move Medicaid patients to ASCs for their care. Debbie suggested a co-pay that would be required if they choose a hospital, and no co-pay if they choose an ASC. Co-pays are limited by CMS and have historically not been very effective. The Department is looking at a way to prior-authorize the services. This could be for a facility and or for a variety of codes. There is some concern from the Department that the extra man power to prior authorize these services may be overwhelming. This will need to be worked out before July 1^st.

We did agree to provide the Department with some additional information:

• Safety data: Shane will work with ASCA to provide quality and safety data.
• Shane will work with National Medical billing to provide a data analysis of our common ASC codes and compare current Medicaid vs Medicare rates. We will also identify implant intensive cases that could migrate from the hospital to ASCs if implants were reimbursed. We will send the analysis out to for review to IASCA members for completeness.

Overall, an excellent meeting and it is very probable at least some changes to the Medicaid reimbursement for ASCs will go into effect this summer.

The Legislature will be wrapping up soon and I will do a full legislative report after they sine die.

Sincerely,

Kris Ellis

Legislative Update March 1, 2019

As lawmakers turn to examining the Medicaid budget for next year, legislative budget analyst noted the breakdown of the current Medicaid caseload. In 2018, 215,400 or 73.8 percent of the people on Medicaid were on the basic plan, which is largely for children and pregnant women, but that made up only 29.5 percent of the budget. The enhanced plan, primarily for people with disabilities, had 48,800 enrollees, just 16.7 percent of the caseload, but accounted for 43.2 percent of spending. The coordinated plan, which covers elderly patients who are dually eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare, had 27,531 enrollees, but accounted for 27.3 percent of the spending. “In Medicaid, when you’re talking caseloads, it’s children and pregnant women,” Tatro said. When you’re talking dollars, it’s primarily disabled and elderly. On the policy side of Medicaid, this week the House Health and Welfare Committee returned two bills that would have repealed the Medicaid expansion referendum that passed this fall. The sponsors testimony indicated the voters didn’t really know what they were voting for when they passed Medicaid expansion. The votes were 7-5 in committee. On the Senate side, Senator Souza introduced a bill that would have added an optional work force option for those already on the Idaho Insurance Exchange and eliminated Medicaid expansion if the federal match dropped below 90% of the cost. That bill is not likely to get a hearing; however, a new bill is on the agenda to be presented on Monday March 4^th in the House Health and Welfare Committee that would add a work requirement for some Medicaid enrollees.

(IASCA members and I will be meeting with Idaho Medicaid to discuss increased reimbursement later this month. I am looking forward to these discussions and will report the outcome of that meeting. )

Health Care Issues:

Medical Issues:

HB 9 Medical Practice Act Rewrite: This bill updates and modernizes provisions of the Medical Practice Act related to licensure, registration, discipline, disabled physicians or physician assistants, and member composition of the Board of Medicine and Physician Assistant Advisory Committee. For licensure, this bill removes barriers to practice by simplifying the requirements for expedited licensure by endorsement and removing the requirement that medical students be registered with the Board. This bill updates the discipline section to require more timely notification to the Board of felony criminal charges against a licensee and adds a disruptive provider clause, both of which the Board believes are necessary to protect the public adequately. This bill updates and simplifies the Disabled Physician Act by adding physician assistants and streamlining the Board’s evaluation process, which will benefit licensees with serious mental and physical illnesses who may otherwise face disciplinary action by the Board. Finally, the bill provides housekeeping updates to remove obsolete language, deletes duplicative language, streamlines the language throughout, and modernizes the requirements of the Act. This bill has been signed into law by Governor Little and will go into effect July 1, 2019.

HB 12 Opioid Antagonist: This legislation removes the terms prescriber and pharmacist from the law and allows other health professionals to deliver naloxone to individuals who may be in a position to help patients. This bill has been signed into law by Governor Little and will go into effect July 1, 2019.

SB 1028 Worker’s Comp PTSI: This bill identifies Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSI) as an occupational injury that affects Idaho’s First Responders. Under current law, a mental injury must be accompanied by a physical injury. This changes current statue that if a First Responder has “clear and convincing” evidence of a physiological injury then the treatment would be handled through worker’s compensation. This bill has passed the house and the senate and will go to the Governor for his signature.

HB 58 Drug Donations: This legislation will allow any pharmacy, long-term care facility or an individual to donate unused drugs in blister packs even if some of the blister packs have been used to free clinics or even back to the pharmacy. Currently only hospitals and nursing homes can donate unopened medication. HB 58 has passed the house and passed out of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee with unanimous support.

SB 1034 Anti-Cancer Co-Insurance Parity: This legislation creates insurance parity for cancer treatment regardless of the treatment being intravenously administered, injected or orally taken. It directs the Department of Insurance to ensure regulated health plans where anti-cancer medication is covered to provide patient access to orally administered medication at no more than the cost of injected or intravenously administered medication. This bill was amended in the senate and is now awaiting a vote on the senate floor.

HB 143 Occupational Licensing Reform: This legislation declares it to be the policy of the state to adopt a comprehensive and proactive approach to reducing barriers to occupational licensing. It would require the licensing authority to accept relevant military education and training or service be counted towards the qualifications to receive a license. It would require an expedited process for licensing members of the military, former military or military spouses, and it would require licensing authorities to establish a procedure of endorsement for members of the military, former members of the military or their spouses. It has not had a hearing in the business committee.

SB 1068 Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs): PBMs are third party administrators under contract by health plans, employers and government entities to manage prescription drug programs for health plan recipients. PBMs decide which pharmacies are included in a prescription drug plan’s network and how much the pharmacy will be paid for dispensing services. Idaho is one of just five states that do not regulate or have any oversight at all over PBMs. This bill will require PBMs that operate in Idaho to register with the Department of Insurance. It also gives pharmacists more flexibility in informing patients how they can pay less out-of-pocket for prescriptions. Today, PBMs prohibit pharmacies from discussing prescription cost options with their patients. Recently, legislation passed and was signed into law at the federal level prohibiting “gag clauses” on Medicare Part D and Advantage plans, but State legislation is still needed for all other insurance. This bill has passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee.

Sincerely,

Kris

Legislative Update February 8, 2019

The Idaho Supreme Court has rejected the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s claim that the voter-passed Medicaid expansion initiative is unconstitutional. The opinion was written by Chief Justice Roger Burdick. Burdick wrote that the Freedom Foundation’s argument that the initiative was an unconstitutional delegation of lawmaking authority to the federal government was “without merit.” “It is unclear why the plaintiff contends the Medicaid expansion statute is unconstitutional but does not challenge the existing Medicaid statute, when both reference the Social Security Act,” Burdick wrote. “If we were to accept the argument that any reference to a federal statute delegates lawmaking authority to the federal government, then many of Idaho’s statutes would be unconstitutional, and in fact, the option of any cooperative federal-state program would be curtailed.” This decision will pave the way for the legislature to implement the initiative that won support from 60.6 percent of the Idaho voters in November. It expands Idaho’s Medicaid program to include people under age 65 whose income falls below 133 percent of the federal poverty level.

Medical Issues:

HB 9 Medical Practice Act Rewrite: This bill updates and modernizes provisions of the Medical Practice Act related to licensure, registration, discipline, disabled physicians or physician assistants, and member composition of the Board of Medicine and Physician Assistant Advisory Committee. For licensure, this bill removes barriers to practice by simplifying the requirements for expedited licensure by endorsement and removing the requirement that medical students be registered with the Board. This bill updates the discipline section to require more timely notification to the Board of felony criminal charges against a licensee and adds a disruptive provider clause, both of which the Board believes are necessary to protect the public adequately. This bill updates and simplifies the Disabled Physician Act by adding physician assistants and streamlining the Board’s evaluation process, which will benefit licensees with serious mental and physical illnesses who may otherwise face disciplinary action by the Board. Finally, the bill provides housekeeping updates to remove obsolete language, deletes duplicative language, streamlines the language throughout, and modernizes the requirements of the Act. This bill has passed the House and the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. It will have a senate floor vote next week.

HB 12 Opioid Antagonist: This legislation removes the terms prescriber and pharmacist from the law and allows other health professionals to deliver naloxone to individuals who may be in a position to help patients. This legislation has passed the House and is moving through the Senate.

SB 1034 Anti-Cancer Co-Insurance Parity: This legislation creates insurance parity for cancer treatment regardless of the treatment being intravenously administered, injected or orally taken. It directs the Department of Insurance to ensure regulated health plans where anti-cancer medication is covered to provide patient access to orally administered medication at no more than the cost of injected or intravenously administered medication. This bill is waiting for a hearing in Senate Health and Welfare.

The legislative pace is definitely picking up,

Kris

Legislative Update January 18, 2019

The first two weeks of the 2019 legislative session have seen a broad variety of issues brought up, Including rules for commercial video in state parks, broadening who can give Naloxone, the anti-opioid overdose drug, the critical overloading of the prison and Idaho’s per capita incarceration rate being one of the highest in the country, Medicaid expansion (to have or not have a work requirement), water rights, and many others. All committees have started to have hearings on agency rules, and some have started printing agency bills.

Due to supposed inaccurate withholding of the individual income taxes, state revenues are down significantly. Therefore, the Governor has proposed a conservative budget. However, the state Economic Forecast Committee was even more conservative in its projections; proposing a potential budget that is $93million less than the Governor’s budget. It is expected the revenue deficit will be rectified when personal taxes are filed in April, but the legislature will be out of session when that occurs. Since 2014 the state has had a surplus eliminator that directs any funds remaining at the end of the year to be distributed ½ to the budget stabilization fund (rainy day fund) and ½ to the Idaho Department of Transportation. There are several such proposals floating around the capitol, and I expect the surplus eliminator to continue in some form.

Medical Issues:

HB 9 Medical Practice Act Rewrite: This bill updates and modernizes provisions of the Medical Practice Act related to licensure, registration, discipline, disabled physicians or physician assistants, and member composition of the Board of Medicine and Physician Assistant Advisory Committee. For licensure, this bill removes barriers to practice by simplifying the requirements for expedited licensure by endorsement and removing the requirement that medical students be registered with the Board. This bill updates the discipline section to require more timely notification to the Board of felony criminal charges against a licensee and adds a disruptive provider clause, both of which the Board believes are necessary to protect the public adequately. This bill updates and simplifies the Disabled Physician Act by adding physician assistants and streamlining the Board’s evaluation process, which will benefit licensees with serious mental and physical illnesses who may otherwise face disciplinary action by the Board. Finally, the bill provides housekeeping updates to remove obsolete language, deletes duplicative language, streamlines the language throughout, and modernizes the requirements of the Act.

Medicaid Expansion: To date there has been no action on Medicaid Expansion. It is expected to be later in the session.

Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns as the legislative session progresses,

Kris

Legislative Update January 2019

2019 State of the State Address and New Agency Appointments

Gov. Brad Little in his first State of the State address proposed a state general fund budget of $3.897 billion, an increase of slightly less than 6.7 percent over this year. He noted that state revenues have been falling short of forecasts, due to lower than expected individual income tax withholding receipts. “My team is following this issue closely, confident revenues will eventually match the rapid pace of economic growth,” Little said. “Though we are confident, in true Idaho fashion, we will not spend money until it’s in the bank.” He also proposed using our budget surplus to eliminate the grocery tax once and for all. That means Idaho would eliminate the current 6 percent sales tax on food in fiscal year 2021.

Little called for any new tax exemptions to be tied “a proportional reduction in state spending or real income generation.” His budget includes only a 0.3 percent increase in the number of full-time state positions.

“On election day over 60% of voters approved Medicaid expansion. For months I made it clear I would honor the will of the people. I intend to work with you to implement Medicaid expansion using an Idaho approach.” “We need spring in our safety net so that there are multiple pathways for the gap population to move off Medicaid and onto private coverage,” he said. Little’s budget proposal calls for fully funding Medicaid expansion without any net impact on the state general fund. It would do so by tapping into the Millennium Fund, the state’s endowment created from proceeds of a nationwide tobacco settlement, for $10,756,400 next year. The remainder of the cost would be funded by offsets in the Corrections and Health & Welfare budgets, in which medical services fully being provided with state general funds would be covered under the newly expanded Medicaid program, with the federal government paying 90 percent and the state’s share at 10 percent.

Gov. Brad Little drew one of his loudest rounds of applause when he promised to issue an executive order “requiring state agencies to revoke two regulations for every new regulation they want to implement.”

Little stated his first executive order would be to require Sunrise and Sunset provisions on any new licensure bills.

Gov. Brad Little’s budget proposal for higher education calls for a 4.24 percent funding boost for Idaho’s four-year colleges and universities next year, but doesn’t fund the universities’ proposed shift to an “outcomes based” funding model. Instead, it includes $4.3 million to fund the enrollment workload adjustment, and a $7 million boost to the state’s Opportunity Scholarship.

“Idaho is ready to lead,” Little said. “My friends, if we create an environment that brings about economic prosperity, if we continue to invest and modernize education, if we do what we can to make healthcare accessible and affordable, if we invest in our infrastructure, if we protect our natural resources, and if we assure citizen confidence in government, we will keep our best and brightest here in Idaho.”

New Agency Director Appointments

Little chose Dave Jeppesen as the new director of the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare, the state’s single largest agency. Jeppesen has been with Blue Cross of Idaho for the past six-and-a-half years, most recently serving as executive vice president and chief strategy and innovation officer. He also had a long career in banking.

Tom Kealey is Little’s new director of the Idaho Department of Commerce. Kealey, who lost to Julie Ellsworth in the GOP primary for state treasurer, is a co-owner of the restaurant chain Chicago Connection and a former executive at Morrison-Knudsen. Bobbi-Jo Meuleman, the current commerce chief, was named director of intergovernmental affairs, a new division in the governor’s office.

Kelley Packer will head the Idaho Bureau of Occupational Licenses. Packer, a former GOP state representative from McCammon, ran unsuccessfully in a crowded GOP primary this year for lieutenant governor.

Bryan Mooney will be the new director of the state Department of Administration, replacing current director Bob Geddes. Mooney is the former vice president of operations at MWI Veterinary Supply, the largest animal health distributor in the world.

Little named Dr. David McClusky as chairman of the board the Idaho Department of Correction. McClusky, who currently serves on the board, is a Twin Falls native and University of Idaho graduate; he received his medical degree at Northwestern University.

Wendi Secrist will be executive director of the Workforce Development Council; and Monty Prow, director of the Department of Juvenile Corrections.

Friday, Little named Brian Wonderlich as general counsel for the office of the governor. Wonderlich, who also chaired Little’s transition team, has been a partner in the law firm of Holland & Hart for the past eight years, and also is a former deputy Idaho attorney general. “We have taken the honor of filling these positions very seriously and ensuring we have the right person to lead these agencies and departments,” Little said in a statement. “These men and women are dedicated and valuable public servants.”

The legislative committees will have organizational meetings this week with a few rules hearings. The Committee on Employee Compensation with meet twice this week and next week I expect all committees to get rolling with rules hearings.

I look forward to representing your interests to the Idaho Legislature this year,

Sincerely,

Kris Ellis