"KanCare is looking like another DMV disaster-to-be"

Kansas City Star columnist Steve Rose weighs in with concerns about the hurried implementation of KanCare and the unwise decision to include long-term supports for Kansans with developmental disabilities:



"KanCare is looking like another DMV disaster-to-be"
July 5, 2012
Steve Rose

The Kansas Health Institute has nailed it. 


KanCare - to paraphrase - is likely to be a mess when it is implemented on Jan. 1.


On that date 380,000 poor and disabled Kansans, who now receive services through Medicaid, will be shifted to private, managed care in an attempt to save money. The new program is called KanCare.

The KHI researched what has happened in Kentucky, which recently has implemented what we are about to implement. And, so far, it has had lots of hiccups.

And Kentucky did not even include three categories that are included in the Kansas plan: long-term services for the elderly, physically disabled and, eventually, the developmentally disabled.

Personally, I am not opposed to the overall concept. Clearly, Medicaid costs are out of control, and the best hope for efficiencies is through some sort of fixed-rate managed care, although — as I have written before — the developmentally disabled should never go to managed care.

But this must be done very, very carefully. And the way it looks, Kansas will not be prepared by Jan.1 to make a smooth transition.

According to KHI news service, the state auditor from Kentucky said...(read more)