Problems with Medicaid Eligibility System Leave Kansans Without Care

Thousands of Kansans seeking Medicaid benefits are being forced to wait months because of continuing problems with a new computer system and a change in the state agency responsible for handling some eligibility determinations. The application backlog began to form in July when state officials moved Medicaid eligibility processing to the long-delayed Kansas Eligibility Enforcement System (KEES). The software switch forced employees to use dozens of time-consuming workarounds to make the system function. Then on Jan. 1, the state transferred all Medicaid eligibility determination for elderly and disabled Kansans from the Kansas Department for Children and Families to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Organizations that serve those populations say that since then, their clients have been improperly dropped from Medicaid, which in Kansas is a privatized program called KanCare. Aaron Dunkel, KDHE deputy secretary, told the group he’d look into the problem.

Source/more: Kansas Health Institute

David Wingate is an elder law attorney at the Elder Law Office of David Wingate, LLC. The elder law office services clients with powers of attorneys, living wills, Wills, Trusts, Medicaid and asset protection. The Elder Law office has locations in Frederick and Montgomery Counties, Maryland.