- Brownback’s administration rolls out Medicaid reform package, November 8, 2011, Wichita Eagle: “Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration unveiled a major Medicaid reform package Tuesday that will shift thousands of disabled, elderly and low-income residents into a managed care system that aims to reduce hospital visits and slow the growth of Medicaid spending over five years without reducing benefits. The ‘person-centered’ integrated care program is called KanCare. It will be managed by three companies that win state-issued three-year contracts. They will be evaluated and paid based on their outcomes, such as reduced emergency room visits…”
- Brownback seeks $850M in Medicaid savings, By Tim Carpenter, November 8, 2011, Topeka Capital-Journal: “Gov. Sam Brownback took a step Tuesday toward formation of a managed-care system for all Kansans on Medicaid that emphasizes coordination of services to improve health outcomes and cut costs by more than $850 million over a five-year period. Brownback said the cornerstone of the overhaul was an integrated care system – to be called KanCare – intended to improve the lives of 350,000 disabled, elderly and low-income Kansas. KanCare would take effect in January 2013 and begin to bend the cost curve of Medicaid down by engaging new partnerships with the state’s Medicaid provider community…”
- Lawmakers OK changes that could drop 65,000 from Medicaid, By Jason Stein, November 10, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The Legislature’s nonpartisan budget office projects 65,000 people – nearly half of them children – would leave or be turned away from the state’s health programs for the poor, under a proposal passed by lawmakers Thursday. The Joint Finance Committee approved 11-4 a proposal by GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s administration to bridge the final part of a more than half-billion dollar budget gap in the rapidly growing health plans. All Republicans voted in favor and all Democrats against. The proposal must still win federal approval from President Barack Obama’s administration by the end of the year – a significant hurdle. The Medicaid health plans cover about one in five state residents – almost 1.2 million people – and provide everything from doctor visits for poor families to nursing home care for the elderly. To help control rapidly increasing costs in the programs, Walker’s administration wants to decrease benefits for a quarter of a million recipients, increase premiums for tens of thousands of others by up to tenfold, and drop coverage for adults and children for at least a year if the premiums aren’t paid…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty