Subcommittee urged to protect department of health budget components

SHERIDAN — As a Wyoming legislative subcommittee nears the end of its interim work on the Wyoming Department of Health’s budget, Wyomingites urged the trio of lawmakers to protect a few critical components of the department’s budget.

WDH’s budget — just less than $2.25 billion for the 2025-2026 biennium — is larger than any other state department. Members of the Joint Appropriations Committee established a subcommittee in August to review the department’s spending.

Reps. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, and Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, and Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, serve on the subcommittee. The group has met four times thus far; its first three meetings centered largely on the intricacies of the department’s budget, past cuts and the department’s workforce, among other topics.

Public commenters held the floor for much of the subcommittee’s penultimate scheduled meeting.

Representing the Wyoming Dental Association, Nick Agopian urged the committee to protect the state’s growing investment in Medicaid dental services. 

According to WDH’s 2024 annual report, prepared in February 2025, there was just more than $16 million spent on the program in 2024; the program’s spending has increased each year since 2020. The state splits dental program costs evenly with the federal government.

WDH Director Stefan Johansson noted the state increased its dental rates by about 25% a few years ago, which contributed to the increase.

“We were entering a period where not only were dental providers going to stop taking new Medicaid clients — and in this case we were really talking about children — but we had dental providers that were saying they were going to withdraw from the Medicaid program altogether,” Johansson said.

Many of the 31,498 recipients in 2024 were children.

“This is dental services that these children are most likely not… able to receive,” Agopian said.

Medicaid dental services for children — Wyomingites 20 or younger — include two teeth cleanings, restorative care, gum treatment, root canal therapy, braces, tooth replacement and oral surgery. Agopian said the increased dental rates are crucial for the state’s dental providers and protecting them helps ensure Wyomingites receive proper dental care.

City of Casper attorney and Central Wyoming Counseling Center board member Eric Nelson said WDH funding is critical to the CWCC, with whom Casper has partnered for a diversion court program.

Nelson said individuals who most frequently use city services — like police, fire and emergency medical services — are often referred to that program, which allows them to seek treatment for mental health problems and receive credits against their fines.

“This program has been very successful, and it would not be possible without CWCC and the funding it receives from the department of health,” Nelson said.

Between Oct. 1, 2024, and Nov. 5, 2025, there were 90 enrollments in the residential treatment program, 60 in the dependency unit and 56 in the crisis stabilization center, according to Nelson, many of whom are credited $30 per day toward their outstanding fines. 

The program has helped save the city of Casper nearly $350,000 in jail costs.

WDH is set to spend more than $364 million on various behavioral health programs during the 2025-2026 biennium, according to a document prepared by Legislative Service Office staff.

Pendergraft urged the groups not to depend solely on government funding.

“Politics is fickle, and the whim of governments comes and goes, and it comes right down to what is the proper role of government,” he said.

Pam Brondos, a member of the CWCC board and the Foundation for the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming, said the center partners with St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Casper; the church provides meals for people graduating from residential treatment.

“There’s so much need… We’re spread thin, too. So, we have to partnership with the government,” Brondos said.

The subcommittee is currently slated to meet Nov. 14, its last scheduled meeting according to the Legislature’s website.

This story was published on Nov. 10, 2025.