Idaho Nursing Home Camera Laws: HB 287 and What Applies Today

Idaho has no statute or administrative rule authorizing, regulating, or restricting cameras in nursing home or assisted living resident rooms. A detailed 2025 bill, House Bill 287, would have created a full framework, but it never left committee. This page covers what Idaho law says today, what H0287 would have done, and practical guidance for Idaho families.

This page is part of our Nursing Home Camera Laws hub, which compares all 50 states, and our national Nursing Home Camera Laws guide covering the states that do have an enacted statute.

Idaho Has No Nursing Home Camera Statute Today

No Idaho Code section grants a resident, guardian, or health care agent a right to install a camera or audio device in a nursing home or assisted living room. Idaho Code Title 39, Chapter 33, the Idaho Residential Care or Assisted Living Act, sets out a detailed list of resident rights, including privacy in accommodations, medical treatment, and communications, but none of its roughly 21 enumerated rights mentions electronic monitoring, cameras, or recording devices. IDAPA 16.03.22, the state's administrative rule governing residential assisted living facilities, is equally silent on the subject after a full review of its resident-safety, physical-standards, and enforcement sections. Idaho's definition of "nursing facility" for hospital-licensing purposes, at Idaho Code § 39-1301, simply cross-references the federal Medicare/Medicaid definition and does not touch monitoring devices either. Whether a resident can have a camera in Idaho today depends on the individual facility's own admission agreement, not on any statewide legal right.

House Bill 287: A Detailed Framework That Never Got a Hearing

House Bill 287, the Electronic Monitoring Devices in Long-Term Care Facilities Act, was introduced in the Idaho House during the 2025 Regular Session, sponsored by the House Health & Welfare Committee. It was reported and referred to that committee on February 21, 2025. It never received a committee hearing, a floor vote, or any further action, and it died with the 2025 session. No evidence has been found that it was reintroduced in the 2026 session, which adjourned sine die on April 2, 2026, though the absence of a new bill is not conclusive proof one won't appear in a future session.

As drafted, H0287 would have covered both nursing facilities and residential care or assisted living facilities, and it would have let a resident, guardian, or health care agent authorize a camera and audio device once a facility-prescribed form was completed and the resident or their representative agreed to pay for the device and its installation, maintenance, and removal, other than the electricity cost. The bill's most significant limitation is that it conditioned permitted installation on the resident's room not being shared with another resident at all. There was no roommate-consent pathway; a resident in a shared room could only request, at their own expense, a transfer to a private room. The bill would have made notice permissive rather than mandatory, letting a facility choose whether to post a sign that a device was in use. It would have restricted default viewing and listening access to the resident, their guardian or health care agent, and law enforcement, with additional viewers allowed only with written authorization. It also would have barred a facility from denying admission to, discharging, or otherwise retaliating against a resident over the decision to authorize a device, backed by a civil penalty of up to $100 for a first violation and up to $500 for each later one, and it would have made intentionally tampering with a device or unauthorized viewing a separate misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and up to six months in county jail.

Watch out: H0287 is not law. It describes what was proposed in 2025, not what Idaho actually permits or requires today. A facility is under no legal obligation to follow any of the procedures the bill would have created.

Audio vs. Video: Idaho's General Recording Law Still Applies

Even without a nursing-home-specific statute, Idaho's general recording law governs any camera or audio device placed in a resident's room. Idaho is a one-party consent state under Idaho Code § 18-6702: interception of a wire, oral, or electronic communication is lawful where at least one party to the communication has given consent, including the person doing the recording if they are a party to it. Unlawful interception can carry up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

That framework covers a resident, or someone recording with the resident's consent, capturing their own conversations. It is less clear where a camera with audio also picks up conversations the resident is not part of, such as staff talking among themselves or a roommate speaking with a visitor. Neither of those parties has consented, which can raise separate exposure under Idaho's eavesdropping law. A video-only device avoids this issue, since Idaho's recording statute, like the federal Wiretap Act, reaches communications, not silent video. For the general mechanics of Idaho's one-party consent rule, see our Idaho recording law guide and its security camera page.

What This Means in Practice

Because Idaho has no statute either granting or barring a resident's right to a camera, the facility's admission agreement controls whether one is allowed at all. Before installing any device:

• Ask the administrator directly and get any permission in writing, including whether the facility requires notice to staff or other residents.
• Plan for a shared room separately. Idaho has no statutory roommate-consent option; a facility that permits cameras will typically set its own rule for a shared room, which may mean seeking the roommate's agreement or requesting a private room.
• Consider a video-only device if consent from everyone who might be recorded, including staff and a roommate's visitors, cannot realistically be obtained.
• An undisclosed camera carries real practical risk. It is not itself a crime under Idaho's video-recording law, but a facility that discovers it may treat it as a violation of the admission agreement, and any audio the device captures from a conversation no party consented to could expose the person who installed it to liability under § 18-6702.

If You Suspect Abuse or Neglect

Camera footage, whether from a facility system or a family device installed with permission, is sometimes the evidence that first reveals abuse or neglect. If footage or another source raises a genuine concern about how a resident is being treated, that concern may support a legal claim separate from whether the camera itself was properly authorized.

Reporting a Concern: The Idaho Long-Term Care Ombudsman

Idaho residents, families, and staff can raise complaints about facility policy, retaliation, or suspected abuse or neglect with the Idaho Commission on Aging's Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. The program advocates for residents' rights at no cost to the resident or family, and under the federal Older Americans Act it covers assisted living residents as well as nursing home residents, regardless of whether Idaho has a camera statute.

Information last verified on 2026-08-14, drawn from Idaho Legislature H0287 bill records, Idaho Code § 18-6702, Idaho Code Title 39 Chapter 33, and IDAPA 16.03.22. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer and is not legal advice.

Related Resources

• Nursing Home Camera Laws by State
• Nursing Home Camera Laws: 50-State Comparison
• Idaho Recording Laws
• Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect Claims
• Idaho Power of Attorney Laws

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Last updated: 2026-08-14.