by Tom Bell, president and CEO, Kansas Hospital Association
We need to set the record straight regarding Gov. Brownback’s plan to tax hospitals. The governor has stated that he wants to increase the current hospital provider tax to replace his four percent Medicaid provider reimbursement cut … and to help struggling rural hospitals.
The governor seems to be saying that in order to reverse the four percent rate cuts, he is going to increase a tax on the very entities those cuts are hurting. That is at best inconsistent, and more likely it will exacerbate the problems being faced by health care providers. For example, one such facility, Sumner Regional Medical Center in Wellington, was exempted from the direct four percent Medicaid cut, but would be assessed an additional tax of $32,000 under the governor’s proposal. It’s been often reported Sumner Regional is struggling. This is certainly no way to help that rural hospital.
The governor’s hospital tax increase, just like his Medicaid cut announcement, shows a lack of understanding of the interdependence of Kansas hospitals specifically, and the Kansas health care system in general. All hospitals are challenged by the Medicaid cuts and all hospitals will be even more challenged by an increase in the hospital provider tax. And consequently, every community, large and small, will feel its effects.
Kansas hospitals and health care providers have been good partners in attempting to make the KanCare program operate efficiently, even in the face of growing problems with that program. The governor’s proposal does further damage to this partnership.
There is, of course, one way to draw down additional federal dollars at an even greater match rate. And that is to develop a unique Kansas plan that takes advantage of the option to expand our KanCare program in a way that benefits not only our most vulnerable citizens, but also the Kansas economy. We look forward to working with the 2017 Kansas Legislature to craft such a plan.
Tom Bell is the president and CEO of the Kansas Hospital Association in Topeka, Kan. KHA is a voluntary, nonprofit organization existing to be the leading advocate and resource for members. KHA membership includes 210 member facilities, of which 126 are full-service, community hospitals. Founded in 1910, KHA’s vision is: “Optimal Health for Kansas.”
The events of five days ago – the death of a 10-year-old boy at the Verruckt water slide ride at the Schlitterbahn water park in Kansas City, Kan., – have made it clear that the Kansas law governing them is weak.
The accident was still under investigation and as of Friday, its cause had not been announced.
A glance at the laws governing amusement parks (online at http://kslegislature.org/li_2014/b2013_14/statute/044_000_0000_chapter/044_016_0000_article/044_016_0001_section/044_016_0001_k/ and regulations at www.dol.ks.gov/Safety/park.aspx) would convince almost anyone that they are very weak.
Compare them, for example, to our laws on restaurant food inspections. A state or a municipality inspector will inspect restaurants, file a report, and then the report becomes available for public inspection. Consumers can easily visit the website (https://foodsafety.kda.ks.gov/FoodSafety/Web/Inspection/PublicInspectionSearch.aspx) to check on the latest report.
Under the current Kansas law for amusement park rides, however, the inspections are yearly self-inspections, and are kept by the owner of the park.
The Kansas law says, “Each patron of an amusement ride, by participation, accepts the risks inherent in such participation of which an ordinary prudent person is or should be aware.”
Consumers today have come to expect more of their government. They expect a little more oversight. But there is little federal oversight, either, of these rides. The local government has said it does not do ride inspections, either.
State Sen. David Haley, D-4th Dist., said, “One of the things we’ve learned is the public agrees that Kansas and many other states should have stronger oversight and maybe even regulation on fixed site amusement parks.” Sen. David Haley
While he said he doesn’t have all the answers on what needs to be done, he said there is a pretty strong consensus among people that staff training and having engineers check the site should be part of the equation.
“Since there is no federal law, I think we need to look at the best practices of those states that already have seemingly event-free or negative event-free occurrences,” Sen. Haley said. “Who is implementing it, who stores the data, that seems to be a good place to start so it doesn’t cost very much to reinvent a well oiled ferris wheel.”
If a law is working well in another state, with no incidents, with oversight and training managed by that state, then Kansas could learn from them to keep its ferris wheels and roller coasters as safe as possible, he said.
While others may raise questions about legislators who accept a free gift (free admission) from someone who wants to have a law passed in their favor, a lot of legislators apparently don’t look at it that way.
Sen. Haley said he was invited to the legislators’ day at Schlitterbahn on Sunday, but did not go. He has attended before, however. He said it’s often hard to find time to spend together with the family when legislators are in public service, and he feels this was a wonderful invite by Schlitterbahn to legislators and their families to have time to spend together.
“Schlitterbahn is a jewel in our county, and this is a horrific event,” Sen. Haley said. “But I sure hope that Schlitterbahn continues to thrive and to prosper, and that this tragic accident, once they get the corrections in place, won’t mar its current and future success.”
Last session the Legislature debated what rules should be in place for parks that allow visitors to interact with potentially dangerous animals, he said.
“The examples of people going to an inherently dangerous environment with the expectation that some oversight has been afforded that won’t injure or kill them is what we have to address here,” Sen. Haley said.
He doesn’t recall any Kansas debates about amusement park ride laws because there are few if any amusement parks. When laws concerning traveling circuses were discussed, there was tremendous apathy, and some pushback, he added.
Sen. Haley said he has requested the National Conference of State Legislatures to research the best practices from different states on amusement park ride laws to see what seems to be working well in other places.
On Friday, reports out of Topeka stated the governor said the law needs to be looked at after this tragedy occurred.
The reason I favor stronger laws on amusement park and water park rides is simply that it is our families, children and grandchildren who are riding them. It’s a sad truth that nothing seems to get done unless there is a tragedy. I hope that it will not take another tragedy to get more safety oversight in place in Kansas.
Waiting around at the driver’s license station on Thursday. Window on the West
Opinion column by Mary Rupert
Some people say I never take a vacation. That’s not true. For example, today I was vacationing at the Kansas Division of Vehicles.
Every six years or so, I visit their office to get my driver’s license renewed sometime before my birthday. Around two days ago, I looked up the schedule of the driver’s license station. It said the office at 63rd and Parallel Parkway, the only office in Wyandotte County, is open from 7 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
So my husband and I went to get our drivers’ licenses renewed after work about 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. We walked into the office, saw a lot of people in the waiting room, saw a sign that said numbers were not being given out because of the number of people in line, and walked out again.
It was clear that it would take more than an hour at the driver’s license station. Even though his workday starts and ends earlier than most people, my husband took a half-day of vacation on Thursday in order to get his driver’s license renewed.
As I was getting ready to leave today for the driver’s license station, a state senator called and I said I couldn’t talk because I had to go get my driver’s license. He was interested, suggested writing about the experience and said maybe I should call my state representative, which I found pretty funny.
When we checked the driver’s license information online, we saw that seven driver’s license stations in Kansas offer online waiting service, where you can check in to see what the waiting time will be, including Andover, Derby, Manhattan, Mission, Olathe, Topeka and Wichita – but not Kansas City, Kan.
In this era of “Can you prove who you are?” I made sure I brought along my current driver’s license, my yellow renewal postcard that came in the mail, and just in case, a bank statement with my name on it. Fortunately, I didn’t have to bring out the bank statement for proof of who I am. I used to know a few people who worked at the driver’s license station and knew who I was, but those days apparently are long gone.
Arriving at about 11:10 a.m. Thursday at the driver’s license station, we took a number and sat down to wait. I was number 67, and when we came in, they were on number 34. There weren’t many chairs left. A few people spilled outside of the station, waiting around, one sprawled on a bench.
I estimated about 45 people waiting in the beige plastic stackable chairs in the waiting room, with some standing up and a few sitting on the floor. Some were kids along with parents, or spouses who were there with the driver applicant. People were walking in, looking around and leaving. During our time there, about 20 people walked in, then walked out without getting their license, because they didn’t want to wait.
Like other vacationers, I sat around a long time waiting. I was pretty bored waiting in a room full of strangers. I was so bored that I took out my cell phone. I took some photos, and I read two magazines that I had brought.
Some people who were waiting were swapping stories about how their old cars were running, were talking about how awful temporary jobs are, and were making a comparative analysis of local jails, talking about the quality of the toilet paper. Others were chasing after kids. Many were looking down at their cell phones or tablets, trying to play a game or check a message. Some were staring off into space. My husband fell asleep for a while.
Lunch time came and went. A few workers left for lunch and a couple of others kept on working. I realized then that a person with a basketful of sandwiches could have made some money by just walking through the waiting room, offering them for sale. No longer was there a fast-food restaurant in the shopping center as there had been years ago.
By noon, they had reached number 47 — still 20 numbers away from me. I estimated they were going about 10 per hour. By 12:30 p.m., they were up to number 53. By 12:40 p.m., they hit number 57. They were going faster – was it because some of the people waiting in the chairs had got up and left?
Finally, my number was called around 1:05 p.m. The crowd had thinned to about half of what it was earlier. The driver’s license employee was very nice and remarked that I smiled for my picture even though I had to wait about two hours. It took about five or 10 minutes to actually complete the paperwork, take the driver’s license photo and pay the license fee. Another ordeal was over, at least for six years.
