KSN reports that Kansas diverted $24 million in developmental disability waiver funding and physical disability waiver savings to the Frail Elderly and Brain Injury waivers, aiming to avoid new waitlists, but the Frail Elderly waitlist has still grown past 400. Meanwhile the IDD waiver waitlist has ballooned past 5,000, exceeding the legislature's 4,000-person cap, with some families waiting nearly a decade or longer for services. Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities executive director Sara Hart Weir Rogers says outdated, paper-based intake processes and poor data-sharing between KDADS and KDHE are driving delays, and has proposed a six-point, five-year plan to eliminate the IDD waitlist. DCF Secretary Laura Howard, who also leads KDADS, acknowledged the fund diversion in an August release.
Why it mattersKansas Medicaid officials face mounting pressure to fix cross-agency data gaps and funding allocation as HCBS waiver waitlists grow despite legislative caps, directly affecting thousands of beneficiaries' access to home and community-based services.