By Mike Shields
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Aug. 22
Legislators charged with oversight of the Kansas Health Policy Authority said Wednesday that they were disappointed that the agency”s stops on its 20-city listening tour to gather public input on the health reform plan it is drafting weren”t open to the general public.
“I heard a lot of comments about the limited participation,” said Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden. “It seems to me if it is presented as a listening tour it should be open to the public. The perception in the public is that this was put together to hear only what (the agency) wanted to hear.”
“How many of the listening tour stops were in the evenings for working families?” asked Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita.
Both legislators are members of the Joint Committee on Health Policy Oversight.
The comments came during an update on the agency”s health reform planning by executive director Marcia Nielsen.
Nielsen defended the listening tour stops saying that the agency had depended on various groups across the state to help put the gatherings together and had left it to each of the groups whether their sessions would be open to all or be invitation-only affairs. She also said that even though each listening tour session was selective the tour as a whole had included a broad cross-section of Kansans that numbered between 800 and 1,000.
“This was more like focus groups,” Nielsen said, “which are kind of like an art and a science.”
The listening tour also has its fans in the Legislature, though no one on the oversight committee spoke up to defend the process the agency has been using.
“There are a lot of folks who think they”re doing a great job,” Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, said later. “They’re getting a lot of diversity, which is exactly what we wanted them to do. Obviously, there is no silver bullet or we would have dealt with all this a long time ago. The
whole purpose of the listening tour is to go out there and hear what people are concerned about and I think they”re doing a great job.”
The tour so far has included meetings with a wide variety of groups ranging from church members, Kansas University medical faculty, chambers of commerce, insurance underwriters, health care providers, people who rely on safety net clinics and others. The tour has already been to cities in most areas of the state with more stops scheduled this week and next.
The tour stops on Thursday in Emporia are representative:
At 7:30 a.m., the meeting will include health care providers and hospital administrators. At 11 a.m. it”s the Chamber of Commerce, then 12:30 p.m. at the Flint Hills Community Health Center with health care consumers. There”s a 2 p.m. meeting with members of the Mennonite West Conference and then back to Topeka for a 4 p.m. meeting with Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger and representatives of insurance companies.
Friday the tour will head to Hutchinson, Dodge City and Garden City.
In other action Wednesday the committee heard:
*
A rundown from consultant Steve Schramm on the work his firm will be doing with the health policy authority. Schramm”s company, Schramm-Raleigh Health Strategy, LLC, will prepare models of various health-reform scenarios being
considered by the agency”s board
.
*
A report on the advantages of Health Savings Accounts by Beverly Gossage, director of HSA Benefits Consulting in Lawrence.
*
An update
on the backlog of Medicaid applications caused by the federal law requiring stiffer proof of citizenship for eligibility.
*
An overview from Nielsen on the agency”s work with various reform efforts including two pilot projects involving health information technology or exchange, one in Wichita, the other in Kansas City.
-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.