By Jim McLean
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — Republican members of a joint legislative committee say there’s no need to launch a state investigation into allegations that lobbyists connected to Gov. Sam Brownback engaged in “pay to play” deals involving KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program.

Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat and member of the KanCare Oversight Committee, on Tuesday urged members to recommend the formation of an investigative committee in a report they’re preparing for legislative leaders.

Several news outlets have reported that the FBI is investigating the “pay to play” allegations, which are said to involve David Kensinger, a lobbyist and political consultant who served as Brownback’s chief of staff until 2012. However, the FBI, in keeping with its policy, has not confirmed or denied the investigation.

Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, said it is “premature” to consider forming a special legislative committee and arming it with subpoena power.

“If the FBI is certainly looking at this, then they’re way better at it than us,” Denning said.

Ward also requested that the investigative committee dig into charges that the Sunflower State Health Plan, one of the three managed care companies running KanCare, violated the terms of its contract with the state.

Jacqueline Leary, a former Sunflower vice president, alleges in a lawsuit filed last month that she was fired for objecting to a directive that she help steer KanCare members away from high-cost providers in the company’s network.

Sunflower is a subsidiary of Clayton, Mo.-based Centene Corp., which operates in 19 states in addition to Kansas.

“I do not want us to determine whether this person was wrongfully terminated,” Ward said. “But the allegations … deal with a contract that was made by a private company with the state of Kansas to deliver services to people we’re responsible for, with money we’re responsible for. And to find out whether the terms and conditions of the contract were broken is our responsibility.”

The other two Democrats on the oversight committee, Sen. Laura Kelly of Topeka, and Sen. Marci Francisco of Lawrence, supported Ward’s request. But all of the Republicans – Denning, Rep. John Edmonds, Rep. Willie Dove, Rep. Ron Ryckman Jr., Rep. David Crum and Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook – opposed it.

“I certainly don’t think we have any business in that thing because it’s a personnel issue,” Denning said. “I just don’t see what we could possibly gain out of it.”

Jim McLean is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

COFFEYVILLE- A Kansas woman died in an accident just after 11:30 a.m. on Friday in Montgomery County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Dodge Stratus driven by Rachel Nacole Baker, 29, Coffeyville, was eastbound on county road 2800 just north of Coffeyville.

The vehicle failed to stop at stop sign at U.S. 169 and entered the path of a 2007 Freightliner semi driven by Kenneth Petrey, 58, Commerce, OK.

The vehicles collided and both came to rest in the east ditch.

Baker was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics in Kansas City. A three-year old passenger in the Dodge was transported to St. Francis in Tulsa.

Petrey was not injured.

The KHP reported Baker and the child were not properly restrained at the time of the accident.

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. (AP) — A top administrator at the nation’s leading university for the deaf and hard of hearing has been sworn in as the new president of Baker University in northeast Kansas.

The Lawrence-Journal World reports (http://bit.ly/1qJb0mc) reports that Lynne Murray was inaugurated Friday as the school’s 29th president at a small, invitation-only ceremony on the Baldwin City campus.

Murray has been leading Baker since July 1. Plans to inaugurate her Oct. 30 were delayed after the death of a Baker student the day before.

Murray previously worked at Gallaudet (gal-uh-DET’) University in Washington, D.C., serving as vice president of development and international and alumni relations.

She replaces Pat Long, who retired in June.

Baker will hold an open inaugural event for Murray on April 16, 2015.

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — St. Louis-area and state officials have announced a “rules of engagement” agreement between police and roughly 50 protest groups in anticipation of the Ferguson grand jury announcement.

The agreement announced Friday spells out how protesters associated with the organizations will conduct themselves, along with conduct that police agree to abide by.

For example, police agreed that excessive force will not be tolerated and encouraged protesters to renounce violence against police and others.

The grand jury is considering whether to indict Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9. Wilson is white and Brown was black. The shooting spurred protests, and unrest is expected to escalate once the announcement is made. That announcement could come any day.

 

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CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — Police and government leaders are preparing to outline an agreement reached with activist groups spelling out how protesters associated with those organizations will conduct themselves following a grand jury announcement in the Ferguson case.

The agreement will also spell out conduct that police will agree to abide by. St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and Missouri Department of Safety Director Daniel Isom plan to discuss the agreement at a Friday afternoon news conference in Clayton.

The grand jury is considering whether to indict Ferguson Officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9. Wilson is white and Brown was black. The shooting spurred protests, and unrest is expected to escalate once the announcement is made. That announcement could come any day.

 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Air traffic has resumed at a southwestern Missouri airport after an investigation into a suspicious package.
City spokeswoman Cora Scott says Transportation Security Administration screeners alerted the fire department about the package around 9:30 a.m. Friday, and air traffic was halted. No details about the package were immediately available.

Springfield-Branson National Airport spokesman Kent Boyd told Springfield media that people were moved to the far end of the concourse, and the bag that contained the suspicious device was placed in a separate room in the basement of the airport.

The airport has nonstop flights to 10 U.S. cities and serves 750,000 passengers each year.
FBI spokesman Bob Stewart says it’s very early in the investigation, but he says the owner of the suspicious object has been identified.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate has passed H.R. 4067 to delay Medicare’s enforcement of unreasonable and inflexible direct supervision rules for outpatient therapy services at all hospitals including Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) introduced the original version of this bill, S. 1954, and it passed the Senate on Feb. 10, 2014. Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) introduced an identical version of the bill in the U.S. House of Representatives and it passed the House on Sept. 9, 2014.

“Imposing an unrealistic and clinically unnecessary supervision policy jeopardizes patients’ access to important services in communities in Kansas and across the country,” Sen. Moran said. “This one-year delay is needed because many Kansas hospitals are considering cutting services for their patients or limiting hours of operation in order to comply with this inflexible regulation. I urge the President to sign this bill, and I will continue to advance legislation requiring the federal government to implement a reasonable policy that more reflects the realities of providing care in rural areas. Thanks to Congresswoman Jenkins for her extraordinary efforts on this legislation in the House of Representatives.”

“This is a testament to Congress for recognizing that these supervision requirements are unnecessary and could jeopardize access to healthcare in our rural communities where medical service shortages are already severe,” Congresswoman Jenkins said. “Critical Access Hospitals are the lifeblood of our rural communities and it is my hope the President quickly signs this bill into law to give our communities more certainty and ensure patients receive timely and quality healthcare. I thank my colleagues for supporting this legislation and I want to especially thank Senator Moran for his hard work and leadership on the companion legislation in the Senate.”

This legislation is supported by the American Hospital Association, the Kansas Hospital Association and the National Rural Health Association.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a decision by a Ferguson, Missouri, grand jury believed to be imminent, Attorney General Eric Holder is exhorting police across the nation to prepare appropriately for demonstrations and “minimize needless confrontation” with protesters.

He also says in a video post by the Justice Department that protests are most effective when they’re nonviolent.

The Holder video released by Justice Friday doesn’t specifically refer to the situation in Missouri where a St. Louis County grand jury is deliberating whether to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.

But in message, Holder does mention demonstrations over the past few months that sought to draw attention to “real and significant underlying issues involving police practices.”

 

MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — For only the second time in the history of the International Space Station, the long-term crew will include two women. But after years of training, the last thing they want to dwell on is the fact they are women.

The station’s female population will double following Sunday’s launch of Italy’s first female astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti. She will rocket into orbit from Kazakhstan with two men. At the station, Cristoforetti will join Elena Serova, one of only four Russian women ever to fly in space.

Cristoforetti is a fighter pilot and captain in the Italian Air Force. Serova is a rocket engineer; she’s been in orbit since September. They are both spending six months in space.

By Jim McLean
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — State officials will need to find an additional $40 million to meet rising KanCare costs in the current budget year, according to caseload estimates compiled by the nonpartisan Kansas Legislative Research Department.

KanCare is the name of the state’s privatized Medicaid program.

Also, an anticipated increase in the number of children in the foster care system will require an additional $10.2 million in state funding in the current budget year, which ends June 30.

Gov. Sam Brownback and legislators will need to come up with the additional $50.2 million as they cut spending in other areas to address a projected $280 million revenue shortfall. The fact that there will be only six months remaining in the 2015 budget year when lawmakers go back to work in January will make the task more difficult.

The need for additional KanCare funding is the result of higher enrollment and a new federal tax on insurance companies. The three managed care companies that administer KanCare will be required to pay the tax, a portion of which will be passed on to the state.

“There is nothing we can do other than to write the check,” said Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican. “This is going to be a big issue going forward.”

The premium tax, which was created to help fund the Affordable Care Act, is expected to increase next year at the same time that a reduction in the amount of Medicaid funding from the federal government is expected to decrease by $16.2 million

The state will need to increase the amount it expects to spend on KanCare in the 2016 budget year by $76.6 million, according to the KLRD estimates.

Sen. Laura Kelly, from Topeka, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said increases in KanCare costs are to be expected midway through most budget years. But she said the increases needed this year and next are “hugely problematic” because of the revenue shortfalls caused by the income tax cuts passed at Brownback’s urging.

“We have backed ourselves in a corner with those tax cuts,” Kelly said. “Even before the caseload estimates came out, we were underwater. But we have a responsibility and a moral obligation to respond to these needs, and we’re just going to have to figure out how to do that.”

Approximately 425,000 children, low-income parents, people with disabilities and seniors who can’t cover the cost of nursing home care are enrolled in KanCare.

Brownback and officials in his administration have said they expect the income tax cuts to stimulate job growth and to partially restore state revenues over time. However, the revenue estimates that the governor and lawmakers are required to use for budgeting project that the state will spend through the $380 million balance it had at the start of the budget year and still be $280 million short of what is needed to balance the budget. Next year’s shortfall is projected at $436 million.

The projected shortfalls have some members of the Legislature’s Republican majority talking publicly about revisiting the tax cuts. Denning, who serves on the KanCare oversight committee and as vice chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, has said he wants to “smooth out” additional cuts that are scheduled to take effect and consider requiring some business owners to resume paying personal income taxes on earnings exceeding $250,000.

Jim McLean is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.