National Council on Disability urges feds to delay implementation of KanCare on Kansans with disabilities
The National Council on Disability came to Topeka in December and left with a dim view of Kansas’ Medicaid program.
Now the board that advises the president and Congress on policies affecting the disabled is asking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to stall Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan to fold Kansans with disabilities into KanCare, the controversial semi-private Medicaid program the state adopted this year.
KanCare went into effect on January 1, but Kansans with developmental disabilities are not scheduled to become part of the the program until January 1, 2014.
KanCare is Brownback’s brainchild for curtailing costs associated with Medicaid, a health-care program jointly funded by states and the federal government. Brownback’s plan moved the administration of Medicaid to three for-profit companies with the promise it would save $1 billion over the next five years.
Disability advocates and some patients themselves have questioned the cost-cutting potential of KanCare and say the program would diminish the quality of care for people with physical and developmental disabilities in order to realize cost savings.
It’s not uncommon for states to move small segments of their Medicaid programs to private managed-care organizations. But Kansas is the first state to propose doing so with its entire Medicaid program, a decision that makes patient advocates squeamish because of its potential to reduce the level and quality of care for Kansans with disabilities.
The National Council on Disability held its quarterly meeting in Topeka on December 4 and 5 and heard from policymakers, advocates, bureaucrats and Medicaid recipients. One of those recipients was Finn Bullers, a former reporter in Prairie Village who suffers from a rare form of muscular dystrophy that keeps him in a wheelchair and hooked up to a respirator.
Bullers received 24-hour attention from caregivers in his home in recent years, but since the implementation of KanCare, he has been recommended for a 76 percent reduction in the number of hours his caregivers can be paid by Medicaid. Bullers is appealing that decision, saying that such a reduction in care will put his life in peril. He was profiled by The Pitch in this story.
The National Council on Disability identifies a number of problems it sees with KanCare, including the hurried timeline to fold the disabled into the program and a repeat of KanCare’s slow repayment for care providers from earlier this year.
No word yet on whether the CMS found the National Council on Disability’s letter persuasive.
