Petition: Protect Peer Support Services and Partial Hospitalization Programs in Idaho

In December, Magellan plans to stop paying for Peer Support Specialist services and discontinue payment for PHP (Partial Hospitalization Program) levels of care in Idaho. This single decision will immediately eliminate medically necessary services for thousands of Idahoans who rely on peer support and PHP as part of their recovery, stabilization, and continuity of care. These are not optional programs. These are life-saving programs in a state that cannot afford to lose a single part of its behavioral health continuum.

Idaho consistently ranks among the highest in the nation for suicide rates. We have one of the fastest growing populations nationally, and yet one of the most underbuilt behavioral health systems in the entire country. Removing peer support reimbursement and PHP coverage will not only collapse access — it will increase emergency department admissions, incarceration related to untreated mental health symptoms, relapse rates, and long-term Medicaid costs. It will also force many people to go without ANY level of support at all. Idaho does not have enough clinicians to meet demand. Peer support fills the gap that Idaho’s current workforce shortage cannot fix through clinicians alone.

Peer Support Specialists are evidence-based. They reduce suicide risk, improve treatment retention, decrease relapse episodes, increase hope and self-efficacy, and they build trust with populations who will not engage with clinical care when they are first ready to reach out. Many Idahoans do not seek help from professionals first — they seek help from someone who has lived experience. Removing funding will particularly harm rural counties, where peer support is often the only ongoing accessible support between crisis and full relapse.

PHP programs are also essential. PHP keeps people out of psychiatric hospitalization. PHP prevents acute inpatient admissions. PHP is the level of care between IOP and full inpatient psych — without this level, Idaho will now have a treatment gap so large that individuals will be forced to deteriorate until they meet crisis criteria for inpatient hospitalization. That is not prevention. That is not care. That is reactive crisis management. Idaho cannot afford reactive mental health policy. We urgently need continuity of care, not disruption of it.

This decision by Magellan does not just defund services — it dismantles an entire layer of Idaho’s behavioral health system that we have spent years trying to build. It forces organizations, providers, and recovery centers to lay off trained peer support specialists who have been on the front lines helping Idahoans survive addiction, trauma, grief, suicide loss, co-occurring disorders, and long-term recovery stabilization. It places Idahoans at extreme risk and it threatens the lives of people who are actively working to get well.

We are asking the Idaho Legislature, Idaho Department of Health & Welfare, Idaho Medicaid, and Magellan Behavioral Health to reverse this decision, protect peer support reimbursement, protect PHP coverage, and ensure that Idaho continues to invest in services that save lives, preserve community functioning, and prevent crisis escalation.

Idaho needs MORE layers of care — not less.

We demand:

1. Immediate reversal of Magellan’s decision to discontinue payment for Peer Support Specialists.

2. Immediate reversal of Magellan’s decision to stop payment for PHP level care.

3. Legislative protection for Peer Support and PHP reimbursement as essential behavioral health services across Idaho.

4. Requirement that Peer Support be recognized as medically necessary within all levels of care and not restricted by arbitrary limitations or caps.

5. Commitment from Idaho Medicaid and DHW to fund and strengthen Idaho’s recovery, mental health, and SUD continuum — from outpatient to inpatient — not reduce it.

This petition stands for Idaho’s rural communities, Idaho’s providers, Idaho’s families, Idaho’s youth, Idaho’s veterans, and Idaho’s recovery community. Peer support and PHP are critical layers in preventing suicide, substance-related deaths, homelessness, incarceration, and family separation.

We cannot wait until more Idahoans die before we decide to care.

Peer Support Saves Lives. PHP Saves Lives. Idaho deserves a full continuum of care, not a broken one.

Sign this petition today to protect recovery, protect hope, protect Idaho, and protect the right for Idahoans to access the support they need to survive and heal.