By Mike Shields
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, April 26
The Kansas House on Thursday approved a new proviso dealing with University of Kansas Medical Center affiliations. It also agreed to an additional $6.6 million in spending for medical residents and faculty at the medical center”s Wichita branch.
The affiliation proviso was attached to the Omnibus spending bill in response to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius” veto Monday of a related proviso attached earlier with House insistence to the so-called “mega-budget bill,” the $12.3 billion spending measure that will fuel most of state government in the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Rep. Tom Burroughs, D-Kansas City, offered the proviso amendment to the bill, which differed from the one vetoed by the governor. The one nixed by the governor would have required that the University of Kansas Hospital also approve any affiliation agreement struck between KU Med and St. Luke”s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., a major competitor of the university hospital. The new House adopted proviso would require that the medical center and the university hospital complete their own affiliation agreement before the medical center could move forward with any other affiliation agreements. It also would require that the university hospital be the designated hospital if the medical center succeeds in gaining federal designation as a National Cancer Institute.
Kansas City Democrats said they were united in supporting the proviso. In earlier debates it was House Republicans who were most vocal about the need for the Legislature to keep tabs on the affiliation talks, which has many in the House worried that the medical center will strike a deal with St. Luke”s to the detriment of the university hospital.
The proviso was approved 88-27 over the objections of some lawmakers, including Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, who said he thought the issue had been overblown.
“This is an issue that obviously has attracted a lot of attention,” he said during debate, “maybe more so than it merits. I”m not quite sure what we”re afraid of, a program wanting to expand residencies and contribute $100 million to help do that. When we”ve got someone willing to contribute $100 million to a state institution, I”m not sure what we”re afraid of.”
Kansas City business and foundation leaders have been anxious to see the medical center affiliate with St. Luke”s as part of their blueprint for making the city a national hub for bioscience research. They”ve pledged $100 million, if it happens.
But Wyandotte County Democrats and many Republicans in the House said they didn”t see why a Kansas institution would be eager to strike a deal with a Missouri hospital before reaching agreement with the university hospital that is part of the medical center campus.
“One of the things that concerns a lot of us is the impact this (St. Luke”s affiliation) would have on KU Medical Center in Wichita, which is responsible for the majority of practitioners serving Kansas” said Rep. Brenda Landwehr, the Wichita Republican who chairs the House Health and Human Services. “Why is it we”re trying to push for a Missouri facility to carry the KU name. We”re going to Missouri to give St. Luke”s the KU brand.”
House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, also spoke in favor of the proviso, which he said would serve as an impetus for the medical center and the hospital to reach their own affiliation agreement, which has been in the works for some time.
“It”s pretty obvious to everyone who has looked at this issue that there is adequate blame on both sides for these agreements not being done,” Neufeld said. “This was supposed to be done before the session started, but still isn”t completed.”
Neufeld said he had talked with Kansas City leaders this week and that they told him they agreed that the medical center and university hospital should settle their own affiliation before one was completed with St. Luke”s
“Yesterday, Irv Hockaday was in my office,” Neufeld said. “He agreed that before any more affiliations were done that the agreement between KU Med and the hospital should be done. It (the amendment) just says it”s time
to use the phrase used in the Kansas City area
time to get it right. It”s time to get it done.”
Hockaday is chairman of the Kansas City Life Sciences Institute and has been at the forefront of the effort to make Kansas City a research hub.
Earlier in the eight-hour debate on the Omnibus Bill, the House approved, 61-60, an amendment from Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, adding $6.6 million for another 24 residents at the KU Med branch in Wichita. They money also would be earmarked for paying faculty and adjunct faculty there.
HCBS
Also added to the bill was an additional $3 million for Home and Community Based Services for developmentally and physically disabled. Rep. Barbara Ballard offered the amendment, saying the extra dollars would go to increase wages for direct caregivers working in the program. That money was on top of about $9 million put in the bill when it was worked by the House Appropriations Committee last week. The amendment passed on a voice vote.
Healthy First Five
The House rejected a slightly altered version of the governor”s Healthy First Five plan, which aimed to extend HealthWave coverage to children in families living at 300 percent or less of federal poverty guidelines. The version rejected would have extended the coverage to families at 250 percent or less of poverty.
-Mike Shields is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
mshields@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 123.