By Dave Ranney and Mike Shields
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, April 18
During separate Omnibus deliberations Wednesday, the House and Senate budget committees each agreed to add about $81 million to already approved health and social services spending.
Most of that will be used to help settle a series of long-standing disputes over how the state has been running its Medicaid programs.
“But this gives a clean slate and we can begin to move forward,” said House Social Services Budget Committee Chairman Bob Bethell, R-Alden.
Without the settlement, he and others said, the state might have had to pay back as much as $500 million after a series of federal audits raised questions about how Kansas used its federal Medicaid dollars to fund public school special education and other services. The settlement between Kansas and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been months in the making and was announced Tuesday by the Kansas Health Policy Authority.
“What they did was get that half a billion dollars down to $130 million and then settled for about 25 cents on the dollar,” Bethell said of the terms struck. “I know this looks like a lot of money
and it is
but it”s something we have to do.”
As part of the settlement, Kansas agreed to restructure some of its Medicaid-based programs including those dealing with community mental health services and mental health services for children in foster care.
In keeping with the settlement terms, the House and Senate committees each adopted the following Governor”s Budget Amendments, or GBAs:
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$37.5 million to offset the costs of agreed-to changes in Medicaid-funded services for children in special education. That is considered a one-time expense to be added to the fiscal year 2007 budget.
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$8.1 million, also a one-time FY 2007 cost, for changes in the ways mental health services are provided for children in foster care.
The committees also agreed to the following GBAs for fiscal year 2008:
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$8.9 million from the state general fund for targeted case management for the state”s community developmental disabilities (CDDO) organizations. This money would merely replace lost federal dollars with those from the state.
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$1.8 million in FY 2008 for administrative functions related to delivery of services for the developmentally disabled.
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$17.6 million from the State General Fund, $25.5 million all funds, for a new managed-care plan for the community mental health centers.
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Because of concerns the GBAs might not be adequate to meet the needs of the centers, particularly those in rural areas, each committee also agreed to add another $7 million to the mental health plan, pushing the total added dollars for the initiative to about $32.5 million from all funds.
The House Appropriations Committee, having started Tuesday, completed its Omnibus review on Wednesday. But the Senate Ways and Means Committee began its review Wednesday and is expected to continue its work perhaps through Friday.
Other actions taken Wednesday by the House committee but not yet considered by the Senate committee included:
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Additions of almost $8.9 million in state funds
$24.1 million all funds
to expand home and community based services for frail seniors and people with physical and developmental disabilities;
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$2.5 million in aid for safety net clinics;
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$290,000 for indigent funerals;
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$300,000 ($744,4127 all funds) for home-based services for autistic children.
The House committee did not approve the governor”s Healthy Five proposal or additional money for nursing home inspectors.
-Dave Ranney and Mike Shields are staff writers for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. They can be reached at 785-233-5443.