TOPEKA ? Long-term services for people with developmental disabilities won?t be included in Gov. Sam Brownback?s managed care plan until 2014 under a move approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Friday.
Approval of the budget proviso follows months of protest from organizations that provide services to people who have significant disabilities, such as autism. The organizations and people who have those disabilities worry that the insurance companies bidding to manage the state?s new KanCare system may not have enough experience with long-term care services.
Brownback and other conservative Republicans sought to include those services in the managed care plan for months.
But earlier this week, Brownback acknowledged the widespread concerns and endorsed the move to delay inclusion of those services in KanCare until Jan. 1, 2014, a year after most other Medicaid services fall under the management of three private insurance companies.
?I still think the proposal we put forward was the right way to go,? he said. ?But the pressure and the legislature?s concern? they weren?t really opposed, they just said, politically, let?s give it some time.?
Several lawmakers voiced concern that the budget proviso wasn?t shown to the organizations that seek to be excluded from KanCare.
Rep. Jerry Henry, D-Cummings, questioned whether the proviso could allow case managers for the developmentally disabled to fall under KanCare. Rep. Jim Denning, R-Overland Park, assured him no one would be forced to change who their case manager is.
But concerns persisted.
?I have concerns that this hasn?t been fully vetted by everybody,? Henry said.
The budget proviso includes an option for providers of home- and community-based services to join a pilot project to see how the managed care model could work. Denning said Brownback administration officials say some organizations are interested in ?test driving? the program, but he declined to name those organizations.
Rep. Jo Ann Pottorff, R-Wichita, sought to delay a vote on the proviso until someone made public the groups who want to join the pilot program. But a move to delay the vote until Monday failed.
Brownback also declined to name which organizations want to try out managed care in a pilot project because, he said, the organizations are worried about criticism from others in their industry.
Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, questioned why lawmakers would include the option of a pilot project when providers have clearly said they don?t want to be included in managed care.
?I can?t see anyone changing their mind because they didn?t want it in the first place,? she said. ?They wanted to be outside of it.?
Reach Brent Wistrom at 785-296-3006 or bwistrom@wichitaeagle.com.
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