(May 1, 2024) – The final report is contained in the conference committee report on House Bill 2551. The agreement will receive a final up or down vote in the House and Senate. Highlights of the budget bill include:

• $30.2 million, including $19.6 million in State General Funds, for Spring 2024 Human Services Caseload estimates
• $1 million for the Kansas Nursing Initiative Grant Program
• $1 million for the Nursing Student Scholarship Program
• $10 million for Rural Family Physician Residency Program expansion grant with private matchings required
• Allows allied health programs to be eligible for the Promise Scholarship Act
• Additional funding to begin construction on a regional psychiatric hospital in Sedgwick County that could accommodate up to 100 beds
• Language requiring annual registration and quarterly reporting of supplemental health care nurse staffing agencies
• $5.0 million for child and adult behavioral health beds
• Funds for Medicaid coverage of dental exams, x-rays and cleanings
• $2.5 million SGF for Mirror, Inc., to create a regional inpatient juvenile substance use treatment center in South-Central Kansas with a minimum capacity of 40 beds
• $121,500 for HIV testing and supplies
• $47,000 for the Kansas City Full Circle Program to provide drug abuse prevention services to youth
• $904,442 and 8.5 full-time employees for the Office of Attorney General Medicaid Inspectors to enforce new laws on organized retail crime, age verification of websites harmful to minors and commercial financial disclosures
• Language to delay the enforcement of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act against drug manufacturers participating in the 340B Drug Pricing program until the U.S. Supreme Court issues an opinion on related litigation
• Language requesting the State Employee Health Benefits Plan to provide a study on the affordability of employee cost-sharing related to diagnostic and supplementary breast cancer mammograms. The bill includes language requiring approval by the Health Care Commission, including remarks from dissenting HCC members. The report would be submitted to the legislature on or before March 1, 2025
• Language clarifying a maternity center is a health care provider for the purposes of the Healthcare Provider Insurance Availability Act

The bill passed the Senate on a vote of 22-11 and the House on a vote of 71-49.