Kansas health

Increased insurance cost will wipe out 1% raise granted by Legislature, budget director says

The program is meant to soften the coming cuts to Medicaid. The state health department recently announced the first round of Kansas grantees. Hospitals are using the money to increase healthcare access to rural patients.

The annual child wellness report Kids Count found child poverty has improved in Kansas and Missouri compared to the years before the pandemic. But both states still have tens of thousands of children without health insurance.

Rural Kansans could see longer drives to access healthcare or fewer health services because of hospital closures. A report found that Kansas has 28 rural hospitals at immediate risk of closure.

“These are not just abstract numbers. These are Kansas kids losing access to food,” said Haley Kottler, senior campaign director at Kansas Appleseed.

Gov. Laura Kelly declared an emergency May 12 after health officials learned about the exposure. The three patients, who are all asymptomatic, remain in voluntary isolation at home.

The lawsuit alleges CVS secretly kept prescription drug discount savings instead of passing them on to the University of Kansas Hospital Authority. The suit says CVS then terminated its contract when the hospital asked for an audit.

Currently, both Blue Cross and Aetna are health plan options, with 35,400 employees enrolled in the former and 4,500 in the latter.

Kelly said her veto wasn’t about limiting the ability to practice faith freely, but ensuring Kansans use health plans that cover their medical expenses.

A bill to make diagnostic mammograms free for anyone with insurance in Kansas has stalled. Democrats say it's because the legislation was championed by Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt, who happens to be running against the Senate president in the GOP governor primary.