By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
Nov. 17, 2011
"TOPEKA — A Sedgwick County lawmaker wants the 2012
Legislature to undo a recent state welfare agency policy that he says is
undermining the state’s mental health infrastructure and keeping some seriously
disturbed children from getting the psychiatric treatments they need.
“We’ve put the fox in charge of guarding the hen
house,” said Sen. Dick Kelsey, a Goddard Republican, testifying earlier this
week before the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. “I’m really ticked about
this.”
Others also say they are concerned about the
policy change launched by the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation
Services in January, soon after Gov. Sam Brownback took office.
That new policy was formalized in a contract
signed in September by SRS and Kansas Health Solutions, the managed care
company that is the intermediary between the welfare agency and the state’s 27
community mental health centers.
The policy, state welfare officials say, was intended
to decrease the use of inpatient psychiatric treatment facilities (PRTFs).
Gone and won't come back
Between 2009 and 2011, SRS spending on PRTF
services went from $36.3 million to $46.8 million, an increase of almost 30
percent. There also..."
Click here to read the full article:
http://www.khi.org/news/2011/nov/17/sedgwick-county-senator-wants-revised-srs-referral/
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