Idaho’s cuts to behavioral health programs are creating a significant financial and clinical burden on the state. According to a report by the Idaho Association of Community Providers (IACP), the cuts could cost the state more than $150 million in local taxpayer dollars, with an especially heavy financial burden on homeowners in Boise and other service-area hubs including the greater Lewiston area, Idaho Falls, and Pocatello.
The cuts are affecting Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams, which provide intensive mental health services. Ric Boyce, co-director of the IACP and a clinician who administered his region’s ACT team in Pocatello, warned that local taxpayers are facing between $200 and $800 per person per year in increased emergency care costs. Boyce described a case where an ACT patient died after a post-procedural infection from routine medical care, which he believes might have been avoided with early intervention. “Normally, we would’ve had multiple team members with eyes on that person,” Boyce explained. “We would’ve identified that they needed medical care. We would’ve sent out our nurses as part of ACT. If they were refusing to go, we would’ve sent down our counselors who had training in how to motivate people to follow through with medical care.”
The impact on crisis services is immediate and significant. According to Rehabilitative Health Services in Idaho Falls, the cuts coincided with an increase in patients at behavioral health crisis centers. In Idaho’s Regions 6 and 7, Behavioral Crisis Centers in Pocatello and Idaho Falls reported a significant combined increase in patients, with the centers seeing a 34% increase in client visits in December from the previous year and a 43% increase in January 2026 compared to January 2025.
Both behavioral health leaders and clinicians are talking with legislators in hopes of restoring funding for ACT and other behavioral health services in the near future.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.lmtribune.com/local-news/health-providers-alreadysee-effects-21456817