National Council on Disabilty reschedules Medicaid managed care meetings for December

The National Council on Disability has rescheduled two days of meetings here at the Statehouse as part of its efforts to gather information about Medicaid managed care programs in Kansas and around the country.

The meetings will be held Dec. 4 and 5 with the same times and agendas as were originally scheduled.

Originally set for Oct. 7 and 8, those meetings were cancelled due to the federal government’s shutdown during congressional impasse over the budget and related issues.

The council will use the information it receives to develop recommendations for uniform best practices with the goal of seeing them incorporated into federal policy directives to the states, officials said.

The meetings are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. both days in the Old Supreme Courtroom. Public comment from Kansas residents is scheduled between 4:15 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. on Dec. 4. Public comment from people around the country on all topics is scheduled between 11:15 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. on Dec. 5.

The National Council on Disability is an independent federal agency that advises the president, Congress and other federal and state agencies on policies, programs, practices and procedures that affect people with disabilities.

Former Kansas State Rep. Gary Blumenthal is a member of the council and has said he plans to attend the meetings.

The Medicaid program in Kansas is known as KanCare. Managed care has been part of the program for many years, but on Jan. 1, Gov. Sam Brownback launched an initiative that extended managed care to include virtually all the state’s 380,000 Medicaid beneficiaries, including the elderly in nursing homes, the mentally ill and the disabled.