[Home-on-the-range] FW: Plan Considered for Downsizing SRS

Fri Oct 7 04:51:31 UTC 2011

Greetings, fellow Federationists!

On viewing this article, here is my response:

I realize that SRS is a large agency and that because of its size it hasn’t
always operated efficiently. But the reasoning here escapes me. Moving
services just to move them is not the answer. This has the makings of
inefficiency and ineffectiveness all over it. And it looks like serious
attempts were made to keep details away from the people, a bad sign.
Historically, combining services that serve aging and populations with
disabilities have been laden with problems and conflict. And what is this
talk of clustering us into “silos”? Are we animals?

Sorry for the dietribe!   This plan looks as if it will be a disaster for
SRS and for consumers of SRS services. This proposal is a grave concern and
I’ll be watching it closely and jumping in to put in my two cents’ worth
when needed. Thank you, Rob, for getting this to us and thanks to the Kansas
Health Institute for making it public!

Susan

From: home-on-the-range-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:home-on-the-range-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Rob Tabor
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 11:40 PM
To: home-on-the-range at nfbnet.org
Cc: jayhawk-chapter at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Home-on-the-range] FW: Plan Considered for Downsizing SRS

Good evening colleagues,

Below is a news article from the Kansas Health Institute concerning a plan
being considered for the downsizing of SRS. I realize that SRS is a large
agency and that because of its size it generally hasn’t operated efficiently
or in an effective and responsible way, especially for the needs of blind
Kansans. On one hand, a major overhaul of the human services delivery model
including vocational rehabilitation is welcome, but in my humble opinion,
the blind in Kansas will be no better off under the proposed state
governmental reorganization plan if it is adopted. However, the disguised
blessing is that I think we have a golden opportunity to renew our
long-standing call for a separate agency for the blind, and a resolution is
indeed coming to a convention near you. Stay tuned. Without further ado,
here is the full unadorned article.

Best regards,

Rob Tabor & Guide Cane Raúl Junior

Plan considered for downsizing SRS

Brownback administration looks at moving major welfare programs to other
agencies

By Dave Ranney <http://www.khi.org/staff/dave-ranney/> , Mike Shields
<http://www.khi.org/staff/mike-shields/> 

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

TOPEKA — The administration of Gov. Sam Brownback is considering another
major reorganization that would move many wide-reaching programs out of the
Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

According to people who work closely with state government and confidential
administration sources, the reorganization would move services for the
physically and developmentally disabled from SRS to the Kansas Department on
Aging, which likely would be renamed.

Mental health and substance abuse programs also would be shifted from SRS,
most likely to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, an agency
that earlier this year was merged with the Kansas Health Policy Authority,
overseer of the state's Medicaid program.

 <http://www.khi.org/photos/2011/jul/27/1033/> 

By Dave Ranney 

Pedro Moreno

The anticipated changes would leave SRS, which has been downsized several
times over the last few years under successive administrations, in charge of
protecting abused and neglected children and administering various
assistance programs for the poor such as Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families.

The reorganization would essentially dismantle the SRS division of
Disability and Behavioral Health Services, which currently is managed by
Deputy Secretary Pedro Moreno. The division spends about $942 million of the
agency's $1.6 billion annual budget.

'Can't speculate'

Administration spokespersons said they wouldn't or couldn't comment about
the proposed changes.

"I can’t speculate on the considerations," said Miranda Steele, KDHE
communications director. "The administration is still a few weeks out on
finalizing and announcing the Medicaid reform plan."

Under the direction of Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a group of Cabinet secretaries
for the past several months has been developing a Medicaid makeover plan
that is intended to save the state money and improve services for the
program's beneficiaries. Apparently, the plan for reorganizing SRS would fit
within that broader reform effort. The programs that would be moved under
the plan rely heavily on Medicaid dollars.

"Nothing has been finalized regarding the administration’s plan to reform
the state’s Medicaid program," said Sherriene Jones-Sontag, the governor's
chief spokesperson. "The administration is still a few weeks away from
announcing the reform plan."

"I haven't heard anything final," said Sara Arif, communications director
for Kansas Department on Aging. "In a lot of the Medicaid forums that were
held over the summer, we kept hearing it was somewhat difficult for families
to access the system, and we kept kind of hearing over and over that it
would be nice if we consolidated. But I don't know if anything is happening
with it, necessarily."

Document

SRS FY 2012-2013 Budget
<http://www.khi.org/documents/2011/sep/26/srs-fy-2012-2013-budget/> 

 <http://www.khi.org/documents/2011/sep/26/srs-fy-2012-2013-budget/> 

Download .PDF
<http://media.khi.org/news/documents/2011/09/26/SRS_FY_2012-2013_Budget.pdf>

Nonetheless, some high-ranking administration officials have talked
privately with various service providers who would be affected by the
possible changes at SRS. And administration sources told KHI News Service
that the plan was well advanced. 

“That’s certainly what the chatter has been coming out of the Statehouse,”
said Mike Hammond, executive director at the Association of Community Mental
Health Centers of Kansas.

“We’ve heard that we might be headed to (Department on) Aging,” said Matt
Fletcher, associate director at Interhab, an association representing the
state’s home- and community-based programs for people with developmental
disabilities.

'Communication slow or lacking'

Some who have been frustrated by what they consider poor communication with
SRS managers said a reorganization along the lines proposed would be an
improvement.

"I would have to say we would welcome the opportunity to interact with an
agency (KDHE) that’s open and transparent and wants to communicate with
vendors and providers," said Sarah Hansen, executive director of the Kansas
Association of Addiction Professionals. “We’ve been very impressed in our
dealings with KDHE. They’ve gone out of their way to seek stakeholder input
and they’ve truly been willing to listen. With SRS, there’s always the
opportunity to sit down with the secretary. But in the last few months,
communication has been slow or lacking.”

The reorganization, should it happen, would be similar to one proposed more
than a year ago by Rep. Bob Bethell, an Alden Republican. Bethell chairs the
House Committee on Aging and Long-term Care. 

'Room for increased efficiency'

“It would eliminate a lot of the silos that are prominent in the system we
have now and it would give us the opportunity to better coordinate the
services that we offer now,” Bethell said. “The way it is now, we can have
people whose disabilities are very similar receiving different levels of
services because they’re in the PD (physical disability) silo, the DD
(developmental disability) silo or the FE (frail elderly) silo.

“Let’s put it this way: There’s room for some increased efficiency,” he
said.

Bethell also serves on the Joint Committee on Home and Community Based
Services.

Legislators have long complained that SRS, one of the largest bureaucracies
in state government, is unwieldy, inefficient and resistant to reform.

Lawmakers in 1996 voted to privatize most of the department’s services for
foster children. In 1997, oversight of youth detention centers was moved
from SRS to the then-new Juvenile Justice Authority. In 2005, lawmakers
moved the processing of Medicaid payments to doctors, hospitals and other
medical providers from SRS to the Kansas Health Policy Authority, which
following a fresh reorganization in July this year became the Division of
Health Care Finance at KDHE.

The health policy authority also assumed from SRS the administration of
HealthWave, the state’s health insurance program for children in low- and
modest-income families.

Despite agency reductions that started in earnest under the administration
of Gov. Bill Graves, SRS still has almost 5,500 employees, down from its
peak of more than 11,000. About one-third of the remaining SRS workers are
employed at the five state hospitals for people with severe mental illness
or developmental disabilities.

Sources said they weren't sure whether SRS would remain in charge of the
state hospitals if and when the reorganization happens.

SRS' proposed budget for fiscal years 2012-2013 does not reflect the changes
being considered. 

The proposed budgets for KDHE and KDoA have not yet been made public.

The KHI News Service is an editorially-independent program of the Kansas
Health Institute and is committed to timely, objective and in-depth coverage
of health issues and the policy making environment. 

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