• The House met on Tuesday and worked their omnibus (budget) bill.
• Unbeknownst to others, Representative Ward from Wichita proposed an amendment which would exclude developmental disabilities (DD) from KanCare.

• Ward’s amendment didn’t pass.  65 voted against the amendment and 54 voted for it.

• Johnson County legislators who voted FOR the amendment in our support were: Bollier, Bruchman, Colloton, Hildabrand, Slattery, Spalding and Worley.

• The rest of the Johnson County House delegation voted against it.
• Out of 22 representatives, less than 1/3^rd voted to support us on this amendment.

• The Siegfreid proviso is still in the House omnibus bill. This allows a delay until January 2014 for the both the waiver and Targeted Case Management (TCM) services.
• The omnibus bill now goes to a conference committee for negotiations towards a final bill.
• Delayed implementation of DD is in both House and Senate versions. Both versions include the waiver and TCM.

• Neither House nor Senate provisos are as strong as what we want.
• The House version doesn’t include assessment or Intermediate Care Facilities.

• Atchison Representative, Jerry Henry, offered an amendment which would add $2.5 million for the DD waiting list.
• The same amount was added to the Senate’s omnibus bill, on an amendment made by Fairway Senator, Terrie Huntington, so this will not have to be negotiated in the conference committee. With the $2.5 million from the State and the 60% federal match, we will have around $6.25 million for the waiting list.

• The waiting list amendment passed on a voice vote, so we don’t really know who did or didn’t support it.
• $6.25 million is a fairly small sum but may remove around 160 folks from the nearly 5,000 person waiting list.

Play ball!

We’re drafting boys & girls with special needs ages 5-18 for
our special baseball program.

Come have fun in a non-competitive atmosphere where each player bats, runs the
bases and scores in every inning.  We don’t record outs or keep score. We just
have fun.

Contact us soon.  Our teams need you.

WHAT:     A special baseball program for kids with special needs

WHY:       To provide an opportunity to play ball and have fun

WHO:       Kids with special needs to play.  Adult and youth volunteers to help
at the games.

WHEN:     Saturdays from 10am-noon beginning May 12th..

1. Send a sincere thanks to Senator Huntington for her willingness to offer these Senate amendments.  She can be contacted at:Terrie.Huntington@senate.ks.gov

1. Let your Representative know that as they work their Omnibus bill next week, you would like their support in the delayed implementation of DD into KanCare.  Make them aware that this will be offered as an amendment. Remember, they will all be up for reelection in November…

• The 1115 waiver application (the request which would sanction KanCare) has been sent to the feds for approval.  The feds may approve none of it, parts of it or all of it.  We await their response.

• The House Appropriations committee met and adopted the “Siegfreid proviso” which would delay the inclusion of the DD long-term waiver into KanCare, until January 2014.  The one thing they DID NOT INCLUDE was targeted case management in this delay!  When asked why, administration said that it didn’t need to be included because it’s already protected by their promise that they wouldn’t tinker with it.

• The EXECUTIVE SUMMARY released by the administration about the waiver application states:

• The use of terms “protected by promises” is comforting, but the term “encourages” to insurance companies makes me extremely nervous.

1. If the words in this Executive Summary makes you nervous also, contact your representatives and ask them to support the rewrite of the “Siegfreid proviso.” Targeted Case Management is a vital arm of our community service provision and needs to be included!

1. If you agree that “settling” for less, is not wise—you know what to do, who to contact, and what to say! It’s the choice between a full carve-out or a $15.00 coffee maker.