Lawmakers on the joint Economic Outlook & Revenue Assessment Committee are meeting all day today in the Lincoln Auditorium, hearing reports on various sectors of Idaho’s economy as they examine revenues available for the state budget in the coming year. Jon Ness, CEO of Kootenai Health, is speaking now; he noted Idaho’s doctor shortage. Many in North Idaho go to Spokane for lack of physician access, he said. “They are leaving our state because they can’t get access to physician practices. So we have an access problem, which is driven by a physician shortage problem, which then results in people leaving our state, which then results in job loss,” Ness said. “So I’m back to the need to recruit more physicians in Idaho.”

He said, “We now employ 110 physicians. So our response at Kootenai Health to the physician shortage is to start employing doctors, so we can recruit new physicians to our community and we have more and more physicians approaching us about doing that, and it’s really helping.” Ness also touted Kootenai Health’s relationship with the Mayo Clinic, which he said has “just been fantastic for our organization,” and noted that though the Coeur d’Alene hospital has taxing authority, it chooses not to use it, to avoid further burdening residents for the cost of health care.

Under questioning from lawmakers, Ness said Idaho has about 3,100 physicians, 38 percent of them primary-care physicians, defined as those in family practice, pediatrics or general medicine. “So we have about 1,200 primary-care physicians,” he said, about 33 percent fewer than needed. Those doctors’ average age in Idaho is now more than 50, Ness said. “So you’ve got looming retirements on the horizon also.”

So far, between yesterday afternoon’s hearings and this morning’s, the joint legislative panel has heard from the state’s chief economist, PERSI, the Department of Labor, the Department of Commerce, the legislative budget office, and representatives from the science and technology, construction, auto dealers, real estate, retail and agricultural industries. Still scheduled today are presentations from representatives of Micron, Amalgamated Sugar, Idaho Forest Group, banks, the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, Idaho university economists, the state Tax Commission, and the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho; the full agenda is online here, along with submitted presentations. You can watch live here.