For Immediate Release
August 5, 2016
For more information contact:
Angela de Rocha
Director of Communications
Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services
785-806-7482
TOPEKA – Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) Acting Secretary Tim Keck told the Legislature’s Bob Bethell KanCare Oversight Committee Thursday that the agency has cleared the wait list for the physical disability (PD) Medicaid waiver in Kansas.
“Over the past month we made offers of home-and community-based services to the final 438 individuals with physical disabilities who were on the waiting list,” Secretary Keck said. “That is not to say that more people will not go on the waiting list in coming days, individuals apply every week. But we have now provided an offer of services to all the individuals who qualified.”
“This is a major accomplishment for our KDADS staff, who worked long and hard to address the challenges presented by the waiting list,” Secretary Keck said. “The Brownback administration has dedicated $65 million in KanCare savings to reducing the waitlist and providing services to the disabled. We are proud of that achievement.”
As of July 15, there were 5,975 individuals with physical disabilities receiving services on the KanCare PD Medicaid waiver, and 438 on the waiting list.
The number of individuals receiving services under the PD waiver program peaked on December 31, 2008, with 8,075 participants. That same year, the average annual cost per participant as reported to CMS began to rise and the State of Kansas initiated a policy of “two off, one on” the PD waiver in order address those additional costs.
Between 2007 and 2008, the average annual cost per participant rose from $12,917 to $14,330. These costs were in addition to the cost of providing medical and behavioral health care through Medicaid. By December 31, 2012, there were 5,906 individuals receiving waiver services and the average annual cost per participant as reported to CMS had risen to $18,285.
In 2013, with the launch of KanCare, the agency began a thorough review of the waiting list for the waiver because many individuals whom staff contacted to offer services did not respond, had moved or otherwise could not be reached. That review continued through the first part of 2014. By December 2015, there were 1,319 consumers on the waiting list waiting for services.