By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
PITTSBURG, Nov. 22
The Kansas Health Policy Authority won”t be overseeing the state”s nursing homes and mental health centers anytime soon.
“Quite frankly, I don”t have the staff to do that,” said the health authority”s executive director Marci Nielsen.
Nielsen has told lawmakers she needs about 60 additional full-time employees. Currently, the health authority has 196 full-time staff.
“We are trying to run an agency on a division”s budget,” Nielsen said to a gathering of about 30 social service leaders and others at a town hall meeting sponsored by the health authority.
For now, she said, the health authority is not in a position to take on more responsibility.
Already, the health authority is charged with administering the state”s Medicaid, HealthWave and state employee health insurance programs. It is expected to eventually assume responsibility for nursing homes, mental health centers, and programs that help seniors and people with disabilities live in their own homes, though an exact date for that has not been set.
Currently, the state”s nursing homes are regulated by the Kansas Department on Aging.
Mental health centers and independent living programs are overseen by the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.
“We are not anxious to build an empire,” said Joe Tilghman, vice president of the health authority”s board of directors.
Tilghman, a retired Medicaid administrator, said he did not want the authority”s reach to exceed its grasp.
“As long as those programs are functioning well,” he said, referring to the mental health and independent living programs, “I don”t see a need to move right away.”
Several people at the meeting said the state”s mental health system is in tatters state hospitals especially
and warned that a change in administration would likely add confusion.
“I don”t want to see us lose the things that are working,” said Karen Suddath, executive director at the Wyandotte County Center for Community Behavioral Health.
Rick Pfeiffer, executive director at the Crawford County community mental health center, said the state hospitals are so overcrowded and so unresponsive to local needs that he”s seeing a “shift to the jails. When one system doesn”t meet a need, that need shifts to another system.”
Randy Peterson, senior vice president of regional operations at the Wichita-based Via Christi Health System, said private hospitals” abilities to care for the mentally ill are fast disappearing.
“There were 30 hospitals with in-patient, psychiatric units in 1990,” Peterson said. “There are 12 today.”
Before joining Via Christi, Peterson ran the regional medical center in Salina for nine years.
“I remind people that with the exception of the state hospital at Larned, Salina has the only in-patient unit between Topeka and Denver,” Peterson said. “There used to be one in Hays, but it”s closed now.”
Other issues discussed at the meeting:
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Mental health services are not reaching the elderly.
“We see a lot of depression that is not being treated,” said Craig Kaberline, executive director of the Kansas Area Agencies on Aging Association. “A lot of people don”t know this but the highest rates of depression and suicide are among the elderly.”
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Kansas depends too much on the state”s nursing home industry, not enough on programs that help people live in their own homes.
“There”s a clear institutional bias in this state,” said Shannon Jones, executive director at the Statewide Independent Living Council of Kansas.
“We need to make it as easy to move out of a nursing home as it is to move in,” said Jennifer Schwartz, executive director at the Kansas Association of Centers for Independent Living.
Schwartz said almost one-third of the states nursing home residents could live in community settings, if services were available.
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A federal overhaul of the formula used to calculate pharmaceutical costs is expected to cut Medicaid rates paid to pharmacists next year.
Brian Caswell, a pharmacist from Baxter Springs, urged health authority members to protect pharmacies from the cuts by supplying state dollars to supplant lost federal reimbursements.
If rates are lowered, many pharmacists
especially those in small towns
will be forced to drop their Medicaid clientele, he said.
Andy Allison, deputy director for the health authority, said he heard a common theme among the various concerns raised at the meeting.
“What struck me was the drumbeat for community-based services,” Allison said. “The interest is there, the desire is there. It”s universal, it cuts across all areas of need
mental health, people with disabilities, the elderly. But these services aren”t free and that”s the challenge before us. It”s going to be a hard nut to crack.”
Sen. Jim Barone, D-Frontenac, was among those at the meeting.
He said he was disappointed to not hear more discussion of concerns facing “Joe Six-pack” Kansans.
The health authority will hold another town hall meeting from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., Dec. 6 in Garden City at the Plaza Hotel, 1911 East Kansas Ave. To register for testifying, email
luke.thompson@khpa.ks.gov
or call 785-296-7762 by 5 p.m. Dec. 1.
Contact Dave Ranney at
dranney@khi.org
or (785) 233-5443.