(April 3, 2024) – Today, the Budget Conference Committee, made up of House and Senate members, continued to work through the list of items with differences in the budget bill.

The committee agreed to the following items:

• Added $50 million all funds to increase Medicaid outpatient hospital reimbursement rates in fiscal year 2025
• Added $30 million all funds to increase Medicaid physician provider codes
• Moved the discussion around dental coverage for Medicaid to an Omnibus/veto session
• Added language to increase the hospital provider assessment from 3 percent to 5-6 percent
• Added language requiring nurse staffing agencies to register with the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services and requiring such agencies to submit a quarterly report to KDADS on the rates charged by the agencies to facilities in Kansas
• Added $3 million State General Funds for primary health projects for community-based primary care grants to federally qualified health centers
• Added $5 million to support hospitals providing adult behavioral health services
• Added $3.8 million increasing Medicaid reimbursement for applied behavioral analysis to $65 per hour
• Added $2.0 million for rural emergency hospitals that could not previously qualify for REH
• Added language requiring the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to study the required billing codes and costs of providing remote non-stress tests and ultrasounds to pregnant women on Medicaid
• Added language for $2.5 million to supplement federal grants for substance use disorder treatment for uninsured individuals in fiscal year 2024, and added language requiring an agency report on the usage of funds
• Added $18 million SGF to continue the Medicaid add-on payment for nursing facilities in FY 2025
• Added $5.0 million SGF to provide grants for organizations utilizing 14 (c) labor to increase wages in 14 (c)
• Added $5.8 million to add 250 individuals from the waitlist to the Physical Disability waiver
• Added $17.3 million to add 250 individuals to the Intellectual/Developmental Disability waiver
• Added $48.3 million to increase the average reimbursement rate for agency-directed personal care services on the Frail Elderly waiver to $30 per hour
• Added $5 million from the Kansas Fights Addiction Fund to provide support to substance use disorder providers who provide services to indigent individuals in FY 2025
• Added language requiring KDADS to submit a report to the 2025 legislature on the provision of non-Medicaid reimbursable services by Community Developmental Disability Organizations
• Added $3.4 million to increase the specialized medical care rate from $47 per hour to $50 per hour
• Added $10.2 million to increase supported employment rate for I/DD waiver employment rates from $28 per hour to $40 per hour
• Added $2.5 million in FY 2025 to supplement federal funding for substance use disorder treatment for non-Medicaid eligible populations
• Added $13 million for Brain Injury, Physically Disabled, Autism, Frail Elderly and Technology Assisted waivers to match rates offered on I/DD waivers
• Added language directing a report to study capacity issues for home and community-based services
• Added $47,000 in FY 2024 and $185,000 in FY 2025 from the Kansas Fights Addiction Fund, for the Kansas City Full Circle Program to provide drug abuse prevention services to youth pending presentation and review of the Kansas Fights Addiction Council
• Added $5.0 million from the Kansas Fights Addiction Fund for KDADS for substance use disorder treatment among uninsured individuals for FY 2025, pending presentation and review of the Kansas Fights Addiction Council
• Added $2.5 million from the Kansas Fights Addiction Fund, to make funding available to KDADS to expand Valley Hope in Atchinson, pending presentation and review of the Kansas Fights Addiction Council
• Deleted one full-time employee from the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts licensing program
• Added $500,000 for the Kansas Department of Commerce for HirePaths
• Added language stating the expenditures from the Kansas Comprehensive Grant be distributed 50 percent to regents and the rest to not-for-profit independent institutions for FY 2025
• Added $2.2 million SGF for the Kansas Osteopathic Scholarship for FY 2025
• Moved $75 million SGF for the University of Kansas Medical Center Cancer Research Facility enhancement request to K.U.
• Added $750,000 SGF for the Professional Workforce Development Program at Fort Hays State University
• Added $5 million for the Kansas Comprehensive Grant for FY 2026
• Added $750,000 SGF for the Family Residency programs, which include the Smoky Hill Family Residency, Ascension Via Christi and Wesley Family Medicine Residency programs, for FY 2025
• Added $16.9 million ($7,250,0000 from the Housing Revolving Loan and the rest from the American Rescue Plan Act funds) for housing and retail development in NW Kansas for FY 2025
• Added $500,000 SGF for a pilot program to recruit new home-based childcare providers for FY 2025
• Added language directing KDADS to study capacity issues for HCBS services for the Frail Elderly waiver and to make recommendations to the 2025 legislature
• Added language prohibiting the agency from making changes to the targeted case management program for individuals on the I/DD waiver without express legislative approval
• Added language to convene a workgroup to study rehabilitation codes for certain provider types providing mental health services
• Added language directing KDADS to study and report to the 2025 legislature the involuntary discharges and transfers from state-licensed adult care homes

The committee had previously agreed to the following:

• Added funding and credit monitoring, as well as information technology security upgrades, related to the Kansas Judicial Branch security breach
• Added funding for a joint House and Senate bus tour to provide a better understanding of state mental health hospitals
• Added language stating federally qualified health care centers cannot use patient information for purposes other than direct mental, medical or behavioral health services, transit services or billing
• Added funding to increase operational support for the Self Advocate Coalition of Kansas for FY 2025
• Removed funds for contract nursing expenditures for state hospitals and added language stating this is something legislators will continue to discuss at Omnibus

The committee did not recommend the following items previously discussed:

• Did not add $600,000 for a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Grant Program in Johnson County
• Moved discussion around $5.4 million SGF to develop behavioral health workforce programs at the University of Kansas School of Medicine Wichita and Wichita State University for FY 2025
• Did not add $4.2 million to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for pediatric primary care
• Did not add $2.5 million for Medicaid obstetricians and gynecologists codes
• Did not include bonding authority for the Department of Nursing at Emporia State University

Other items included in the budget include:

• A cost adjustment factor investment for Critical Access Hospitals of $5.6 million
• Language stating drug manufacturers must honor the 340B Discount Drug Program in Kansas

The final bill will go to each chamber floor for a final up-and-down vote before going to Governor Laura Kelly, who has the authority to line-item veto any provisions of the budget bill.