The Pete T. Cenarrusa state office building in Boise, the longtime headquarters for Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and the Division of Medicaid. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Mountain Sun)
The Idaho House Health and Welfare Committee on Monday introduced a bill to let state government agencies share state tax information to help with public assistance fraud investigations.
The bill was brought by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, a state government agency that runs public assistance programs like SNAP, formerly known as food stamps; Medicaid; and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program.
Right now, Health and Welfare can use subpoenas to seek bank records to assemble income information for benefit fraud investigations, but that process is intrusive, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Chief Jared Larsen told the committee. And he said the agency’s subpoenas aren’t necessarily binding on financial institutions outside of Idaho, which don’t always respond…