The House Committee on Aging and Long-term Care passed a bill Tuesday that would create an 11-member committee to oversee the proposed closing of Kansas Neurological Institute.
The bill also stipulates that “all savings” derived from closing the state hospital would be used to fund openings in home and community based services for people with developmental disabilities.
Revenue from the sale of buildings on the KNI campus also would be spent on services outside an institutional setting.
“We very much support this bill,” said Jane Rhys, executive director at the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities.
Gov. Sam Brownback has proposed closing KNI over a 23-month period, starting July 1.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee, also on Tuesday, voted not to close KNI. Several committee members said they doubt KNI residents – all of whom are considered medically fragile – could be cared for in the community.
House Bill 2296 and the Senate Ways and Means Committee’s opposition to closure appear to contradict each other.
“If the decision is not to close KNI, then the bill we voted on today would be moot,” said Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden, chairperson of the House Committee on Aging and Long-term Care. “But if the decision is to close KNI, there should be legislative oversight and that oversight should include making clear what should happen to any savings that come with closure. In my opinion, those savings should stay with those they were intended to serve; that is, people in the community who are developmentally disabled.”
Nine of the oversight committee’s members would be legislators. One member would be a former KNI employee, another would be a parent of a KNI resident.
“I’m afraid that closing KNI without legislative oversight, we’d be like the fox closing the henhouse,” Bethell said. “I don’t think we want to do that.”
Brownback’s office has not proposed using the savings to pay for additional openings in community based programs, all of which now have long waiting lists.
State officials have said closing KNI would save about $14 million a year.
KNI is one of two state hospitals for people with severe developmental disabilities. The other is Parsons State Hospital.
Most KNI residents are unable to walk, speak, bathe or feed themselves.
KNI had 156 residents last month; Parsons State Hospital had 192.
The Topeka hospital is expected to spend $28.8 million, all funds, in the current fiscal year; Parsons State Hospital: $25.3 million.