 |
A new multimillion-dollar grant is coming to our state thanks in part to the Kansas Health Foundation’s Board of Directors.
This grant to the Kansas Health Policy Authority could help Kansas take a big step forward toward the goal of improving children’s access to health care because the funding will be used to support the development of an electronic online application for children applying for HealthWave and Medicaid as well as the placement of 12 community outreach workers at safety-net clinics across the state to increase enrollment levels.
A $50,000 grant from the Kansas Health Foundation earlier this year enabled KHPA to write a grant application to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for federal funding to help Kansas with the growing issue of uninsured people. This funding – labeled the State Health Access Program (SHAP) – was only awarded to a handful of states. “Kansas is one of only 13 states that received federal funding under this highly competitive program,” says Steve Coen, president and CEO of the Kansas Health Foundation.
Kansas will receive $1.9 million in funding for this fiscal year. Grants from this program could last up to five years if the state applies each year and recruits additional matching funds. That could potentially bring about $40 million of health funding to Kansas by 2014.
One of the primary requirements for this funding was that states raise matching funds of at least 20 percent of the federal grant through “non-federal” sources, which could include private foundations such as the Kansas Health Foundation. In July, our Foundation’s Board agreed to provide $200,000 in matching funds if KHPA was successful in obtaining this federal funding.
Peter Hancock, the Public Information Officer for KHPA, said the state agency had very limited time to apply for this funding, so it turned to our Foundation for the resources it needed to write the grant. “The Kansas Health Foundation was instrumental in providing support for that,” Hancock said.
Kansas’ enrollment system for Medicaid and HealthWave is more than 20 years old, and replacing that technology is a top priority for this grant money, Hancock said. “The current system is very inflexible,” he said. “It cannot be adapted to changes in rules. Some say that eligibility rules exist in people’s heads and they literally have to hammer the system into making it work. We’ll replace that, which should smooth the process out significantly.”
How will this funding improve the health of Kansans? “We are one of only 10 states with a rising rate of uninsured people,” Hancock said. “With the eligibility processing system we have now, that expansion of SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) is going to be extremely difficult to implement. This (funding) will make it much easier. Coverage equals access. You have to have health care coverage to be able to unlock the door to the system in many ways. If you improve coverage, you improve access and also improve the health of those Kansans.”
KHPA Director Andy Allison says our state has been looking for federal funding opportunities like this for many years. He adds that these types of programs are rare, and Kansas is doing its best to take advantage of the opportunity.
“It’s a proud day for the Health Foundation because a $200,000 financial commitment on our part helped to leverage at least $1.9 million – and possibly as much as $40 million by 2014 – to help uninsured Kansans,” Coen says.
In our new focus areas, the Foundation committed to do everything we can to increase access to health care for Kansas children, and the role our Board and staff played in bringing this federal funding to Kansas gives us a great start toward reaching this goal.
|
|
|
