A Message from the President & CEO Linda MowBray: Our Kansas Commitment
While the Legislators are away, the lobbyists will play. At least for a couple of days. I’ve enjoyed the great outdoors with my family for three days and thank you all for your patience with me in my slow response to emails. Now, let’s get back to business.
SB 28 – the mega budget bill passed both the House and Senate prior to the break on April 5th. The budget includes a $15.40 per Medicaid resident per day add on plus a full rebase and inflate through December 31, 2024.
On the Assisted Living and Home Plus side, the House language “Add $48.3 million, including $18.6 million SGF, to increase the average reimbursement rate for agency-directed personal care services on the Frail Elderly (FE) waiver to $30.00 per hour for FY 2025” was agreed to by the Senate. This should be welcome news to our HCBS providers, moving the per unit fee from $5.55 to $7.50.
Also in the bill, beginning July 1, 2024 all temporary staffing agencies must register and pay a fee to KDADS in order to continue doing business with our providers. Look for more information in the coming weeks as KDADS has asked for our help identifying agencies currently doing business in Kansas.
Finally in the budget, a proviso was accepted to “add language for FY 2025 directing the agency to study and report information to the 2025 Legislature on involuntary discharges and transfers from state licensed adult care homes. And add further language requiring the agency to establish a system to track data concerning involuntary discharges.” This proviso does two things: first it stopped legislation from requiring an appeals process for involuntary discharges and it specifies that KDADS will be the agency responsible for tracking the data. There was a great deal of concern that the data would be tracked by the Ombudsman’s office, so this is a win for providers.
SB 28 was enrolled and presented to the Governor for signature on Monday, April 15, 2024. Keep an eye out for a special notice when the signing occurs.
page 35 items 3 &4
page 37 items 27 & 28
page 78 item 4
And page 79 items 19, 22 & 24
Click here for the actual bill as presented to the Governor.
The Legislators return for committee meetings April 25, 2024 and the veto session begins April 29, 2024.
Should you have questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me. As always, I am grateful for the opportunity to serve you.
