May 14, 2012 Legislative Update

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May 14, 2012

Your Monday Morning Update:

We’ve got a wee bit of good news and a wee bit of bad news.  Here’s the low down from the Statehouse-
Good news:

  • The House met on Tuesday and worked their omnibus (budget) bill.
  • Unbeknownst to others, Representative Ward from Wichita proposed an amendment which would exclude developmental disabilities (DD) from KanCare.
Bad news:
  • Ward’s amendment didn’t pass.  65 voted against the amendment and 54 voted for it.
Good news:
  • Johnson County legislators who voted FOR the amendment in our support were: Bollier, Bruchman, Colloton, Hildabrand, Slattery, Spalding and Worley.
Bad news:

  • The rest of the Johnson County House delegation voted against it.
  • Out of 22 representatives, less than 1/3rd voted to support us on this amendment.
Good news:

  • The Siegfreid proviso is still in the House omnibus bill. This allows a delay until January 2014 for the both the waiver and Targeted Case Management (TCM) services.

  • The omnibus bill now goes to a conference committee for negotiations towards a final bill.
  • Delayed implementation of DD is in both House and Senate versions. Both versions include the waiver and TCM.
Bad news:

  • Neither House nor Senate provisos are as strong as what we want.
  • The House version doesn’t include assessment or Intermediate Care Facilities.
Good news:

  • Atchison Representative, Jerry Henry, offered an amendment which would add $2.5 million for the DD waiting list.
  • The same amount was added to the Senate’s omnibus bill, on an amendment made by Fairway Senator, Terrie Huntington, so this will not have to be negotiated in the conference committee. With the $2.5 million from the State and the 60% federal match, we will have around $6.25 million for the waiting list.
Bad news:

  • The waiting list amendment passed on a voice vote, so we don’t really know who did or didn’t support it.
  • $6.25 million is a fairly small sum but may remove around 160 folks from the nearly 5,000 person waiting list.
We are now in a wait and see mode.  The conference committee is still working to come up with a final bill.  When that bill is born, it will have to be voted and approved by both the House and the Senate.  It will then make its way to the second floor and the Governor’s desk. He still has the option to veto any or all of it.

Your TO DO list:
The State of Kansas submission for an 1115 waiver from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has been posted on the CMS website for public comment.  This public comment period will last for 30 days.  The link to submit comments to CMS is:https://cmsideas.uservoice.com/forums/161089-section-1115-demonstrations-kansas-kan-care-new-

If you would like to comment on this waiver request please feel free to do so.  Remember that this request must be approved before Kansas can implement KanCare.
There you have it!  The good, the bad and possibly the ugly…
Warm regards,

Lurena Mead

JCDS Community Relations Manager
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