Uncertainty in Federal Budget Prompts Kansas to Return .5M Early Innovator Grant
On Tuesday, August 9th, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback announced that Kansas would be returning $31.5M in federal grant money awarded to it from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
There is much uncertainty surrounding the ability of the federal government to meet its already budgeted future spending obligations….To deal with that reality, Kansas needs to maintain maximum flexibility. That requires freeing Kansas from the strings attached to the Early Innovator Grant.” Kansas Governor Sam Brownback.
The HHS Early Innovator competitive funding program awarded two-year grants to a select number of States to develop innovative information technology (IT) infrastructures needed to operate the Health Insurance Exchanges established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Systems developed through the program are intended to be used as models for all States in their development and implementation of Exchanges.
The return of the grant money is the second largest award to be returned for implementing the federal health care reform. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin announced this past April that Oklahoma would not be accepting its $54.6M Early Innovator grant. Other states have returned or turned down smaller grants.
Kansas plans on working towards developing state-based innovative solutions. Although the return of the grant money likely will make it harder for Kansas to develop its own exchange, it paves the way for more substantial involvement from the Legislature.
Dr. Robert Moser, Secretary for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said that the grant did not address the most important issue in health care reform, that of slowing the rate of cost growth in health care. He stated, “Through the statewide Medicaid reform meetings, Kansas is taking the opportunity to decide for ourselves how best to provide health care access, improve outcomes and reduce costs for our state.”
HHS expressed disappointment in Kansas’s decision to return the grant money, noting that “Kansas has given up an opportunity to be a leader in the development of technology for state exchanges, which could have benefited the citizens of Kansas as well as those in other parts of the country.”
Governor Brownback’s statement can be found here.
