Update from KanCare Teleconference

Below is an update from KHI News Service regarding the teleconference hosted by the State yesterday afternoon:


Federal officials say they hope to act soon on KanCare waiver request
No support expressed for the proposed changes during a one-hour conference call

By Mike Shields
KHI News Service
Nov. 28, 2012

TOPEKA — The federal official in charge of reviewing 1115 Medicaid waiver requests sat in on an hour-long conference call today to hear Kansans' views on Gov. Sam Brownback's proposed Medicaid makeover plan.

Only about 20 people had time to comment but none of them expressed support for KanCare, which would move virtually all the state's 380,000 Medicaid beneficiaries into managed care plans run by three insurance companies.

Most people who called in questioned the need for KanCare and expressed concern that they or family members would lose services or their case managers. Others called for a delay, saying the program's planned Jan. 1 launch date would come too soon.

Vikki Wachino, director of the children and adults health programs group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in rare public comments about KanCare, said CMS had asked Kansas officials to organize today's call so she and other CMS officials could hear public response to the state's preparations in anticipation of an upcoming decision from CMS on Kansas' waiver request. She didn't say when the decision would come, but hinted it could be soon.

"We asked them to do that now at this time...so we can decide where we go from here, she said during the teleconference introductions. "We've spent a lot of intensive and thoughtful time with the state on their proposal and have heard from them loud and clear their desire to move on a Jan. 1 start date and we would like to make the decision soon whether that time frame is the right time frame for Kansas and whether the alternative of not moving forward on that timeframe would create transition implications of their own. So I really invite you on this call to share your thoughts and concerns."

'Listen-only mode'
Wachino said no more after her introductory remarks during which she noted that she and other CMS officials on the call were in "listen-only mode."

Kari Bruffett, director of the division of Health Care Finance at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said earlier in the day during a separate teleconference with Medicaid providers that she expected CMS to deliver a decision...read more