Every year, in late November and early December, I spend quite a bit of time deliberating about what my column will be for the last month of the year. Will it have a Christmas theme? Will it be a positive topic, or will Ebenezer Scrooge make a visit? Will I ask for year-end donations or have a client wish list?
In the midst of my struggles I decided to come up with my own Christmas wish list for Santa.
The first item on my wish list is for the state to revamp KDADS to make it more provider friendly. People forget that we are contracted by the state to do their job for them.
It is their responsibility, according to the Kansas Constitution, to provide care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and sometimes, they dont make the smartest decisions.
For example, policies that were once one or two pages long are now fourteen pages. What once took a day or two to get approved now takes weeks.
The amount of bureaucracy has multiplied tenfold. Lets get back to the people we serve and not the paperwork. With a new governor that is familiar with our services, this wish may come to fruition.
The next item on my list would be a makeover of KanCare. This makeover would include changing the system to a non-profit model rather than a for-profit one.
Why do we allow out of state insurance companies to harvest $300 million a year in profits off of the backs of the people of Kansas?
That money could reduce the waiting list for services to zero and return Kansas to the forefront of progressive services like it once was in the 1990s.
We could invest the money in technology and systems that actually work. In addition, I would add an independent auditor position within government to oversee the managed care system. There needs to be more checks and balances to prevent unfair practices that eliminate services in order to increase profit.
Another item on my list would be a system to establish fair rates for our services.
Multiple studies have found they we continue to be underfunded by millions of dollars each year, yet each year we have to fight for every penny we receive.
Why not establish a cost of living increase formula that guarantees a payment rate every year? We went 10 years without a rate increase and still have not recovered.
THE LAST THING I would wish for is world peace.
