Thursday, December 6, 2012

Officials with Gov. Sam Brownback's administration say they are still waiting to hear from federal health care officials about a waiver request deemed necessary to implement changes to the Kansas Medicaid system.

Mark Duggan, chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, told a legislative health care oversight committee Thursday that Kansas officials are in constant discussion with the federal Department of Health and Human Services about the state's waiver. If approved, the waiver would give Kansas some latitude in how it implements changes to its Medicaid programs.

Kansas has already awarded three contracts to managed care organizations to run the Medicaid program, which provides health care coverage to 380,000 poor and disabled residents. Known as KanCare, the changes aim to control the state's health care costs