By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Dec. 6
Kansas Department on Aging Secretary Kathy Greenlee is looking for ways to spend less, get more.
Last month, she sought Gov. Kathleen Sebelius” permission to take a few million dollars from her nursing-home budget to fund additional openings in programs that help frail seniors live in their own homes.
She also wants to add dental care to the list of services available to Medicaid-eligible seniors.
Both initiatives are expected to save money by helping seniors avoid expensive nursing home stays.
“The time to do this is right,” Greenlee said, because the state”s
nursing home population has slightly decreased in numbers
and nursing homes received a 9.5 percent reimbursement rate increase earlier this year.
The department expects to spend
$352 million on nursing home care in the current budget year
, which ends June 30, 2007.
The increases for dental care and in-home services are part of the department”s proposed budget for fiscal year 2008.
Whether they will be included in the governor”s annual spending plan won”t be known until Jan. 8 when Sebelius presents her budget to the Legislature.
As proposed by the department, in-home services would receive an additional $8.4 million for 605 openings; dental care would receive $1.9 million for 3,793 seniors.
Greenlee also has proposed expanding the dental waiver to include dentures for an estimated 948 seniors, costing an additional $1.4 million.
Currently, dental care is included in the state”s Medicaid waivers for the physically and developmentally disabled.
“I want it added to the frail elderly waiver as well,” Greenlee said, noting that when she”s polled seniors and caregivers about the state”s unmet needs, access to dental care “came to the top of the list.”
Adding dental care to the frail elderly waiver is long overdue, said Jodi Abington, executive director at the Arkansas City-based South Central Kansas Area Agency on Aging.
“We have many, many seniors who need dental care and can”t get it because it”s not covered by Medicaid,” Abington said. “A lot of them end up going without. We try to come up with alternate sources of funds, but those funds are very, very limited.”
In some instances, Abington said, area seniors have been hospitalized with malnutrition due to their teeth hurting too much to eat.
“We do all we can, but there”s not a lot we can do,” she said.
Greenlee”s recommendations came as no surprise to the state”s nursing home lobby.
“This is all part of a trend that”s being driven by
and responding to
consumer demand,” said Debra Zehr, president at the Kansas Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, an organization that represents nonprofit nursing homes.
“People want to live in their own homes as long as they can,” Zehr said. “All of us, I think, recognize that, which is why so many of my members are diversifying their services to include a wider spectrum of care.”
The Kansas Dental Association welcomed news of Greenlee”s dental care initiative.
“We”re supportive, certainly,” said association executive director Kevin Robertson.
“Everybody understands the need that”s really not the issue,” he said. “The issue is one of resources and priorities.”
The aging department”s total proposed spending for fiscal year 2008 is $489.8 million, a $17.3 million increase over 2007.
Dave Ranney is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
dranney@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.