By JIM McLEAN
KHI News Service
Several factors, including the state’s rejection of Medicaid expansion, are conspiring to put some Kansas hospitals at risk.
Two southeast Kansas hospitals — one in Independence, the other in Fort Scott — are among several that might have to close their doors.
To prevent that, both are actively negotiating potential partnerships with neighboring hospitals. Officials at Mercy Hospital Independence and the Coffeyville Regional Medical Center are talking.
Similar discussions are under way between Mercy Hospital Fort Scott and Via Christi in Pittsburg.
Even if agreements are reached, Medicaid expansion will remain a crucial issue, said David Steinmann, chief executive of the Independence hospital.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Legislative committee begins Medicaid expansion hearings
By ANDY MARSO, Kansas Health Institute
KANSAS CITY, KAN. ---- Experts on rural Kansas hospitals gave dire predictions about their fiscal futures in a legislative hearing Wednesday that laid groundwork for a discussion of Medicaid expansion.
Rep. Tom Sloan, chairman of the Vision 2020 Committee, said that he’s trying to facilitate a discussion about how to craft an expansion plan that addresses the needs of stakeholders and the concerns of those wary of its connections to federal health care reforms spearheaded by President Barack Obama.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. ---- Experts on rural Kansas hospitals gave dire predictions about their fiscal futures in a legislative hearing Wednesday that laid groundwork for a discussion of Medicaid expansion.
Rep. Tom Sloan, chairman of the Vision 2020 Committee, said that he’s trying to facilitate a discussion about how to craft an expansion plan that addresses the needs of stakeholders and the concerns of those wary of its connections to federal health care reforms spearheaded by President Barack Obama.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Hospitals hope Kansas will follow recent red-state trend on Medicaid expansion
By Jim McLean
KHI News Service
KANSAS CITY, KAN. ---- Several red-state governors have dropped their opposition to Medicaid expansion in recent months and are pursuing ways to use federal dollars to fund their own more conservative plans.
Governors in the solidly red states of Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Tennessee are pursuing expansion options that seek to use billions in additional federal Medicaid dollars to help low-income adults purchase private coverage or create health savings accounts.
Many of the proposals, which require federal approval, also include incentives aimed at helping recipients get better jobs so that they can purchase their own coverage without government assistance.
Last week, President Barack Obama said he would instruct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to work with states to expedite the approval process and find compromises on expansion proposals.
KHI News Service
KANSAS CITY, KAN. ---- Several red-state governors have dropped their opposition to Medicaid expansion in recent months and are pursuing ways to use federal dollars to fund their own more conservative plans.
Governors in the solidly red states of Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Tennessee are pursuing expansion options that seek to use billions in additional federal Medicaid dollars to help low-income adults purchase private coverage or create health savings accounts.
Many of the proposals, which require federal approval, also include incentives aimed at helping recipients get better jobs so that they can purchase their own coverage without government assistance.
Last week, President Barack Obama said he would instruct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to work with states to expedite the approval process and find compromises on expansion proposals.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Medicaid expansion, local revenues on top of UG agenda for Kansas Legislature
The expansion of Medicaid in the State of Kansas and protecting local revenue funds are two of the top agenda items for the Unified Government as the Kansas Legislature session begins next month.
Unified Government Commissioners met earlier this month to discuss the upcoming session.
UG Public Affairs Director Mike Taylor, who serves as the government's lobbyist in Topeka, said there will be a fight with the Republican-dominated legislature on most issues.
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Medicaid director serving on interim basis named Cabinet secretary
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
KANSAS CITY, KAN. — Gov. Sam Brownback appointed Susan Mosier as secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Friday, one month after giving her the job on an interim basis.
Mosier, an ophthalmologist and former Republican legislator, also has been serving as head of the Kansas Medicaid program and KDHE's Division of Health Care Finance.
KHI News Service
Mosier, an ophthalmologist and former Republican legislator, also has been serving as head of the Kansas Medicaid program and KDHE's Division of Health Care Finance.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
KCK home health provider convicted on Medicaid fraud charges
By KHI NEWS SERVICE
KHI News Service
KANSAS CITY, KAN. — A Kansas City, Kan., home health attendant has been convicted in a federal case based on fraudulent Medicaid billing practices.
Doris Betts, 55, pleaded guilty to health care fraud in U.S. District Court. Her conviction was announced Tuesday by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, whose office is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General to investigate home health care fraud in Kansas.
Betts' conviction is the first from the joint operation, dubbed “Operation No Show,” which focuses on abuse of Medicaid’s home- and community-based services program that pays personal care attendants to assist qualifying Medicaid recipients with general household activities and personal care.
The Attorney General's Office and HHS agreed to recommend a sentence of 18 months in prison for Betts, followed by three years of supervised release and $251,573.32 restitution to the Kansas Medicaid program. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 6, 2015.
KHI News Service
KANSAS CITY, KAN. — A Kansas City, Kan., home health attendant has been convicted in a federal case based on fraudulent Medicaid billing practices.
Doris Betts, 55, pleaded guilty to health care fraud in U.S. District Court. Her conviction was announced Tuesday by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, whose office is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General to investigate home health care fraud in Kansas.
Betts' conviction is the first from the joint operation, dubbed “Operation No Show,” which focuses on abuse of Medicaid’s home- and community-based services program that pays personal care attendants to assist qualifying Medicaid recipients with general household activities and personal care.
The Attorney General's Office and HHS agreed to recommend a sentence of 18 months in prison for Betts, followed by three years of supervised release and $251,573.32 restitution to the Kansas Medicaid program. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 6, 2015.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Kansas hospitals leading new push for Medicaid expansion
By JIM McCLEAN, KHI News Service
TOPEKA — Many uninsured Kansans who Congress assumed would get coverage under the health reform law are instead falling in to what is being called the “Medicaid gap.”
They make too much money or don’t meet other criteria to qualify for the state’s Medicaid program – called KanCare – but don’t earn enough to be eligible for federal tax credits to offset the cost of private insurance.
Those credits are available only to people with incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of federal poverty guidelines. The federal poverty level is $11,490 a year for an individual and $19,530 for a family of three.
As many as an estimated 85,000 uninsured Kansans fall in the eligibility gap, according to researchers at the Kansas Health Institute, a nonprofit policy and research organization that includes the editorially independent KHI News Service.
These Kansans have incomes that are 33 percent or more of the federal poverty threshold — $6,445 for a family of three — but below 100 percent of poverty guidelines.
Katelyn Winrick, a 26-year-old nursing student from Topeka, recently discovered she falls in the gap.
She had come to the Topeka Shawnee County Public Library to get help purchasing health insurance on Healthcare.gov. But after entering information about the income she earns from a part-time job, Winrick and the navigator assisting her concluded she didn’t make enough to qualify for a federal tax credit. That and the fact that she would have been eligible for Medicaid if Kansas officials had opted to expand the program as originally intended by the authors of the Affordable Care Act were “real eye openers,” Winrick said.
“I’m going to school and that really would have helped me given my income situation,” she said.
‘The only priority’
The Affordable Care Act, as signed into law in 2010, was written to include a nationwide expansion of Medicaid to cover everyone earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level — $15,282 for an individual and $25,975 for a family of three. But the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the law held that Medicaid expansion was an option for each state to decide. Policy makers in Kansas and 23 other Republican dominated states so far have chosen against expansion.
The Kansas Hospital Association and a growing coalition of more than 50 organizations are preparing to push Gov. Sam Brownback and leaders in the Republican-controlled Legislature to change their minds and broaden the program.
“It is the only priority,” said Sean Gatewood, the interim director of the Kansas Medicaid Access Coalition. “All we care about is getting the state to accept the money and to cover more Kansans.”
An analysis done for the hospital association concluded that expanding Medicaid eligibility starting this year would have injected another $3 billion into the state economy and create 4,000 jobs by 2020.
Rejecting expansion will cost Kansas an estimated $5.3 billion in federal aid between 2013 and 2022, according to a report released last summer by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
In an effort to get the issue of expansion back in front of legislators, the hospital association has hired Mike Leavitt, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to help it craft an alternative plan — perhaps similar to those being advanced by Republican governors in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Michigan, which would use federal Medicaid dollars to help low-income people buy private coverage.
“We ought to as a state be having a conversation about whether we can come up with a plan like that and the reality is that conversation just hasn’t happened yet,” said Tom Bell, the hospital association’s chief executive.
Bell said he hopes that Leavitt, a Republican who served under President George W. Bush’s and is a former Utah governor, can help convince Kansas Republicans to seriously consider Medicaid expansion options.
“My sense is that he (Leavitt) is somebody that’s not a big fan of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, but he also knows that whether we like it or not we’re all in the implementation business right now,” Bell said.
Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat, who pushed unsuccessfully last year for Medicaid expansion, said he welcomes the attempt to revive the policy debate by focusing on an approach that relies more on private-sector insurance.
“If that helps some of our more extreme conservative folks to support it, I’m OK with that,” Ward said. “I’m all for anything that gets us an opportunity to participate in Medicaid expansion.”
Time will tell whether the new approach will be the game changer Bell and others seek.
Governor's leadership
Rep. Ron Ryckman Jr., a conservative Republican from Olathe and chairman of the House Social Services Budget Committee, said any sort of Medicaid expansion likely would be a tough sell unless Gov. Brownback changes his mind and decides to play an active role in the debate.
“I haven’t spent a lot of time researching what other states have done, but it seems to me that the governor has taken the lead in states that have expanded (Medicaid) or that are having these discussions,” Ryckman Jr. said.
Last year, Brownback did not explicitly rule out expansion. But he expressed reservations about the potential cost to the state and said it would be up to the Legislature. The Legislature subsequently passed a budget proviso saying the state could not expand its Medicaid program without explicit legislative support.
Brownback officials recently said they continue to study what other states are doing.
Bell said he was optimistic the governor eventually would support some form of expansion.
"From the very beginning, Gov. Brownback has been very interested in taking a hard look at this — and I think partly because of his concern for those who are less fortunate. I've heard him talk about that often, and I do think that it's a factor for him. There are lots of factors, I'm sure, but I think how we treat those who are the least fortunate among us is something that's important to the governor — very important to him."
TOPEKA — Many uninsured Kansans who Congress assumed would get coverage under the health reform law are instead falling in to what is being called the “Medicaid gap.”
They make too much money or don’t meet other criteria to qualify for the state’s Medicaid program – called KanCare – but don’t earn enough to be eligible for federal tax credits to offset the cost of private insurance.
Those credits are available only to people with incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of federal poverty guidelines. The federal poverty level is $11,490 a year for an individual and $19,530 for a family of three.
As many as an estimated 85,000 uninsured Kansans fall in the eligibility gap, according to researchers at the Kansas Health Institute, a nonprofit policy and research organization that includes the editorially independent KHI News Service.
These Kansans have incomes that are 33 percent or more of the federal poverty threshold — $6,445 for a family of three — but below 100 percent of poverty guidelines.
Katelyn Winrick, a 26-year-old nursing student from Topeka, recently discovered she falls in the gap.
She had come to the Topeka Shawnee County Public Library to get help purchasing health insurance on Healthcare.gov. But after entering information about the income she earns from a part-time job, Winrick and the navigator assisting her concluded she didn’t make enough to qualify for a federal tax credit. That and the fact that she would have been eligible for Medicaid if Kansas officials had opted to expand the program as originally intended by the authors of the Affordable Care Act were “real eye openers,” Winrick said.
“I’m going to school and that really would have helped me given my income situation,” she said.
‘The only priority’
The Affordable Care Act, as signed into law in 2010, was written to include a nationwide expansion of Medicaid to cover everyone earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level — $15,282 for an individual and $25,975 for a family of three. But the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the law held that Medicaid expansion was an option for each state to decide. Policy makers in Kansas and 23 other Republican dominated states so far have chosen against expansion.
The Kansas Hospital Association and a growing coalition of more than 50 organizations are preparing to push Gov. Sam Brownback and leaders in the Republican-controlled Legislature to change their minds and broaden the program.
“It is the only priority,” said Sean Gatewood, the interim director of the Kansas Medicaid Access Coalition. “All we care about is getting the state to accept the money and to cover more Kansans.”
An analysis done for the hospital association concluded that expanding Medicaid eligibility starting this year would have injected another $3 billion into the state economy and create 4,000 jobs by 2020.
Rejecting expansion will cost Kansas an estimated $5.3 billion in federal aid between 2013 and 2022, according to a report released last summer by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
In an effort to get the issue of expansion back in front of legislators, the hospital association has hired Mike Leavitt, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to help it craft an alternative plan — perhaps similar to those being advanced by Republican governors in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Michigan, which would use federal Medicaid dollars to help low-income people buy private coverage.
“We ought to as a state be having a conversation about whether we can come up with a plan like that and the reality is that conversation just hasn’t happened yet,” said Tom Bell, the hospital association’s chief executive.
Bell said he hopes that Leavitt, a Republican who served under President George W. Bush’s and is a former Utah governor, can help convince Kansas Republicans to seriously consider Medicaid expansion options.
“My sense is that he (Leavitt) is somebody that’s not a big fan of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, but he also knows that whether we like it or not we’re all in the implementation business right now,” Bell said.
Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat, who pushed unsuccessfully last year for Medicaid expansion, said he welcomes the attempt to revive the policy debate by focusing on an approach that relies more on private-sector insurance.
“If that helps some of our more extreme conservative folks to support it, I’m OK with that,” Ward said. “I’m all for anything that gets us an opportunity to participate in Medicaid expansion.”
Time will tell whether the new approach will be the game changer Bell and others seek.
Governor's leadership
Rep. Ron Ryckman Jr., a conservative Republican from Olathe and chairman of the House Social Services Budget Committee, said any sort of Medicaid expansion likely would be a tough sell unless Gov. Brownback changes his mind and decides to play an active role in the debate.
“I haven’t spent a lot of time researching what other states have done, but it seems to me that the governor has taken the lead in states that have expanded (Medicaid) or that are having these discussions,” Ryckman Jr. said.
Last year, Brownback did not explicitly rule out expansion. But he expressed reservations about the potential cost to the state and said it would be up to the Legislature. The Legislature subsequently passed a budget proviso saying the state could not expand its Medicaid program without explicit legislative support.
Brownback officials recently said they continue to study what other states are doing.
Bell said he was optimistic the governor eventually would support some form of expansion.
"From the very beginning, Gov. Brownback has been very interested in taking a hard look at this — and I think partly because of his concern for those who are less fortunate. I've heard him talk about that often, and I do think that it's a factor for him. There are lots of factors, I'm sure, but I think how we treat those who are the least fortunate among us is something that's important to the governor — very important to him."
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Democrats urge expansion of Medicaid in Kansas
By SCOTT ROTHSCHILD, The Lawrence Journal-World
TOPEKA — Democrats on Thursday urged Republican leaders in Kansas to change course and expand Medicaid to cover 100,000 Kansans.
"There is no justification for continuing to block Medicaid expansion," said Josh Earnest, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary.
He was joined in a telephone news conference with state Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee.
"We have constituents that need this insurance," Ballard said.
Under the Affordable Care Act, states can expand the income eligibility limits for Medicaid, the government-funded health coverage for low-income people. Under the reform law, the federal government would pay for the expansion for three years, and no less than 90 percent after that.
Twenty-six states have expanded, but most states headed by Republican governors, such as Kansas, haven't.
Brownback and Republican legislative leaders oppose the ACA. During debate on the issue during the 2013 legislative session, Republicans said they feared the federal government wouldn't fulfill its funding commitment because of ongoing budget problems.
But Earnest said the federal commitment is solid. "This is a really good deal for the state of Kansas," he said. He said he hoped governors would "put the interests of their states ahead of politics," and that President Obama's administration is willing to negotiate with individual states about different approaches to expanding health coverage.
Ballard and Earnest said they understand there is frustration with the recent glitch-plagued rollout of the ACA website, but they said the expansion of Medicaid has gone smoothly.
Facing a large Republican majority in the Legislature, Ballard said expanding Medicaid in Kansas will be difficult. But Ballard added, "We can't lose sight of the fact that 100,000 people who are uninsured today could gain access and coverage by 2016." The question becomes, "Why are we not giving these Kansans the insurance that they need," she said.
TOPEKA — Democrats on Thursday urged Republican leaders in Kansas to change course and expand Medicaid to cover 100,000 Kansans.
"There is no justification for continuing to block Medicaid expansion," said Josh Earnest, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary.
He was joined in a telephone news conference with state Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee.
"We have constituents that need this insurance," Ballard said.
Under the Affordable Care Act, states can expand the income eligibility limits for Medicaid, the government-funded health coverage for low-income people. Under the reform law, the federal government would pay for the expansion for three years, and no less than 90 percent after that.
Twenty-six states have expanded, but most states headed by Republican governors, such as Kansas, haven't.
Brownback and Republican legislative leaders oppose the ACA. During debate on the issue during the 2013 legislative session, Republicans said they feared the federal government wouldn't fulfill its funding commitment because of ongoing budget problems.
But Earnest said the federal commitment is solid. "This is a really good deal for the state of Kansas," he said. He said he hoped governors would "put the interests of their states ahead of politics," and that President Obama's administration is willing to negotiate with individual states about different approaches to expanding health coverage.
Ballard and Earnest said they understand there is frustration with the recent glitch-plagued rollout of the ACA website, but they said the expansion of Medicaid has gone smoothly.
Facing a large Republican majority in the Legislature, Ballard said expanding Medicaid in Kansas will be difficult. But Ballard added, "We can't lose sight of the fact that 100,000 people who are uninsured today could gain access and coverage by 2016." The question becomes, "Why are we not giving these Kansans the insurance that they need," she said.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Former Kansas officials may provide path for current leaders to Medicaid expansion
By SCOTT ROTHSCHILD, The Lawrence Journal-World
Two former Kansas officials — Kathleen Sebelius and Andy Allison — may be helping Kansas leaders find a way to expand Medicaid without appearing to embrace Obamacare.
"We're looking at everything," Gov. Sam Brownback, a vocal critic of the Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama.
"Arkansas just got approved on some interesting things that we are trying to analyze and understand," Brownback said Wednesday.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is led by former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius, has given preliminary approval to Arkansas to use federal Medicaid expansion dollars to buy private coverage for low-income residents.
Arkansas' Medicaid director is Allison, who used to serve as director of the Kansas Health Policy Authority, which Brownback folded into the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
The initiative by Arkansas and other Republican-dominated states has caught the eye of Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita.
"There could be a Kansas-based solution that evolves," Wagle said.
Two former Kansas officials — Kathleen Sebelius and Andy Allison — may be helping Kansas leaders find a way to expand Medicaid without appearing to embrace Obamacare.
"We're looking at everything," Gov. Sam Brownback, a vocal critic of the Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama.
"Arkansas just got approved on some interesting things that we are trying to analyze and understand," Brownback said Wednesday.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is led by former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius, has given preliminary approval to Arkansas to use federal Medicaid expansion dollars to buy private coverage for low-income residents.
Arkansas' Medicaid director is Allison, who used to serve as director of the Kansas Health Policy Authority, which Brownback folded into the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
The initiative by Arkansas and other Republican-dominated states has caught the eye of Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita.
"There could be a Kansas-based solution that evolves," Wagle said.
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