MDNews - Greater Kansas

KANCARE EXPANSION STILL A TOP GOAL FOR 2017 BY WILL KLUSENER PITTSBURG, Kansas — The lack of expansion of KanCare in Kansas fol- lowing the federal government's adoption of the ACA is making waves beyond just the medical community. Business leaders have joined physicians, hospital administrators and others in continued advocacy efforts for the program, which would help provide healthcare coverage for those who cannot afford to purchase insurance on the ACA's Marketplace. "We have not done the Medicaid expansion in Kansas," says Sheldon Weisgrau, Director of the Health Reform Resource Project, which is working to advocate for the expansion of Medicaid in Kansas. "The original deal behind the ACA was that a lot of providers, and especially hospitals, agreed to payment reductions in Medicare in exchange for more people who were covered. Providers have not gotten the half of the bargain they depended on." The trickle-down impact of not following through on the entire bar - gain was explored this fall in a series of meetings throughout the state. "When Kansans don't have health insurance and they end up going to the emergency room, or however they get their care, that cost has to be eaten by someone, and it's certainly eaten by … entities like Via Christi and the community health center, but then those costs are passed on to other entities like our local business community, and as we talk to our local businesses this is a big cost factor to them," Blake Benson, Executive Director of the Pittsburg Area Chamber of Commerce, said in a recent meeting held by local and state officials to discuss the con - cerns. "We need the state to act on this because it's an opportunity that, to be honest, we should have taken advantage of years ago. But we're now down to this point, and for anyone that thinks the business com - munity is opposed to KanCare expansion, that's simply not the case. We couldn't be more supportive of it." Some 365,000 Kansans are employed in the medical field in some way, and the money the healthcare system isn't getting back in reim - bursements impacts the bottom line. Skip Hidlay, Chief Communications Officer for Via Christi Health, says the hospital system has had to absorb nearly $8 million in costs over the past fiscal year and has had to cut 650 jobs over the past four years. That translates into about $52 million in lost wages. Similarly, the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, which tailors its services to lower-income Southeast Kansas, is feeling the pinch. Bob Burk, Director of Community Relations, says CHCSEK sees more than 42,000 patients a year. Of those, 34 percent, or about 13,500 people, are uninsured. Seventy percent of those patients, more than 10,000, would quality for coverage if KanCare were expanded, Burk says. "That's real numbers, and it's the people you know," Burk says. Weisgrau says many medical institutions in Kansas now are consid - ered "vulnerable." "There are more than 30 rural hospitals in Kansas that are consid- ered financially vulnerable, and every one of these would be greatly as- sisted by the expansion of the Medicaid program," Weisgrau says. "That affects rural hospitals more than larger, urban hospitals." Weisgrau says results of this fall's elections will prompt some changes, but advocacy efforts will still be necessary. "What we're going to be seeing in the coming months are changes in the ACA, but I don't think they're just going to roll it back," he says. "They certainly can make changes in a variety of ways, and at this point I move forward saying all the reasons we need to expand Medicaid are still there, but we may have to be doing it in a different way." Additional reporting by Sarah Gooding KANSAS SURGERY & RECOVERY LAUNCHES STATE'S FIRST CT–FREE ROBOTICS–ASSISTED KNEE REPLACEMENT PROGRAM Kansas Surgery & Recovery Center, long the area's leader in joint replacement, has added yet another high-tech tool to help physicians operating there perform precise and accurate knee replacement sur - geries without any exposure to radiation. The Wichita facility is the first in Kansas to acquire and put into use the NAVIO Surgical System developed by Smith & Nephew, a 150-year- old medical device manufacturer that Forbes magazine recently ranked as one of the most innovative companies in the world. Robotics-assisted technology such as the NAVIO system differs from other robotics-assisted surgical platforms because it uses an intra - operative mapping process to create a virtual model of the patient's knee — eliminating the need for a preoperative CT scan or postopera - tive recovery protocol. Advanced planning software is used to virtually size and position the implant components being used to replace the damaged part of the knee. Once the virtual plan is finalized by the surgeon, a robotics- assisted bone resurfacing tool is used by the surgeon to perform the procedure according to the plan. "The introduction of robotic assistance should have knee replace - ment candidates feeling very confident about the future of knee NEWS from around the State Tom Bell, Kansas Hospital Association President and CEO, speaks to medical professionals and journalists in Pittsburg, Kansas, at a gathering designed to promote Medicaid expansion in the state. PHOTO BY WILL KLUSENER, MD NEWS 1 4 1 4H O S P I TA L R O U N D S

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