KDHE has started monthly meetings with the long-term care associations to discuss the upcoming transition of the Medicaid eligibility program back to KDHE. The planned transition date is January 1, 2020. The agency is taking a conservative approach to the transition in order to avoid any major upsets during the initial switch. We will continue to have monthly meetings with KDHE leadership leading up to the eligibility program changes. Here are the takeaways from this month’s meeting:
- Maximus employees are being offered employment with the State of Kansas to minimize loss of workers
- The state would like to maintain a minimum of 70 LTC workers and would like to ramp that number up to 115
- The fax number and mailing address will remain the same
- A more focused approach to customer service will be implemented by assigning one worker to a case (start to finish) and allowing residents and family workers to speak with the case worker directly about their application.
- KDHE will retain a centralized location in Topeka to assist with more effective employee training, and uniformity of policy in processing cases.
- A web portal has been in testing and will be rolled out soon so that documentation can be uploaded directly to the case, minimizing lost documents
- One pod at a time will be transitioned from Maximus to the state. This philosophy should minimize service interruptions and appear seamless.
We will continue providing more information as it becomes available.
