Lisa Stuever and Rachel Monger from LeadingAge Kansas, along with KACE and KHCA, met with Chris Swartz, KDHE Deputy Director of the KanCare Clearinghouse to discuss continued issues LeadingAge Kansas members are experiencing with the Clearinghouse. Many of our members had sent details of these issues, which were shared with Chris. She was concerned about the issues and promised to look into them.
Chris shared with the group that the pilot program they started to assign providers to certain groups of staff in the Clearinghouse went well, so they are moving forward with applying that throughout the State. They are planning to have 6 “pods” of 6 staff members, with each pod having a customer service representative, an eligibility worker, and other specialists. Each pod will be assigned 50 providers. The organizations will be able to call in and ask for their assigned pod, cutting down on the number of Clearinghouse Staff they will be having to work with. KDHE is also working on setting up secure email functionality for the staff to communicate with the providers. These pods will be set up over the next 4-5 months. Providers will receive information from KDHE detailing the pod they have been assigned to and how the system will function. Stay tuned.
Chris emphasized that our members should continue to use the Clearinghouse spreadsheet to communicate their pending applications. Chris calls this spreadsheet their “Escalation Process.” Also, the Advance Payment option is still available. One member of the meeting indicated that they know several organizations that automatically apply for Advance Payments when the application reaches 45 days. This escalates the application processing, as long as the Clearinghouse has what they need. This is something to consider, especially if you feel confident that the applicant should be approved. If you need help with the Clearinghouse spreadsheet or Advance Payments, contact Lisa Stuever. She would be happy to assist you.
