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Advocates for Disabled Kansans: Services Suffering Under KanCare

The KHI News Service is an independent news agency, largely focused on health policy issues and state government news, based in Topeka.
The KHI News Service is an independent news agency, largely focused on health policy issues and state government news, based in Topeka.

Advocates for Kansans with disabilities say the state's privatized Medicaid system is too often failing the people it's supposed to serve.  They aired their complaints yesterday (TUE) during a hearing in Topeka, hosted by the National Council on Disability.  More from Jim McLean, of the KHI News Service.


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Advocates for Disabled: Services Suffering Under KanCare

Advocates for Kansans with disabilities say the state's privatized Medicaid system is too often failing the people it's supposed to serve.  They say the for-profit companies running the KanCare program seem more interested in saving money than providing needed services.  Rosie Cooper, director of the Kansas Association of Centers for Independent Living, was one of the advocates who testified at a hearing in Topeka yesterday (TUE).  She claims a family that wanted to testify was threatened by one of the KanCare companies.


State officials acknowledge that improvements are needed but say, overall, KanCare is working well.  Yesterday's (TUE) hearing was held by the National Council on Disability, which is looking into how Medicaid is being managed in several states and how persons with disabilities are being affected. 

 

Jim McLean, Executive Editor of KHI News Service, oversees the KHI News Service. From 2005 until 2013, McLean coordinated all communications activities at KHI as Vice President for Public Affairs. The position he now occupies was created as part of a strategic initiative to solidify the editorial and operational independence of the KHI News Service. Prior to coming to KHI, McLean had a distinguished career as a journalist, serving as the news director and Statehouse bureau chief for Kansas Public Radio and a managing editor for the Topeka Capital-Journal. During his more than 20 years in Kansas journalism, McLean won numerous awards for journalistic excellence from the Kansas Press Association, regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Kansas Association of Broadcasters. In 1997, McLean and two Capital-Journal colleagues received the Burton W. Marvin News Enterprise Award from the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism for a series of stories on the state’s business climate. McLean holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Washburn University.