KDHE secretary briefs committee on Medicaid priorities, lab move and $17 million maternal health grant

Janice Derek, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, told the Committee on House Health and Human Services that KDHE will focus in 2025 on Medicaid program changes, a public health laboratory relocation and implementing a newly awarded maternal health grant.

Derek opened with KDHE’s mission to “protect and improve the health and environment of all Kansans,” outlined the agency’s three divisions — Public Health, Medicaid (Division of Healthcare Finance) and Environment — and listed personnel recruitment, legal and federal compliance, and stakeholder collaboration as agency priorities.

KDHE said the state public health laboratory move is underway. Derek said KDHE completed design and construction for a new laboratory and is “in the process of moving in different components” from the Forbes Field lab to a facility behind the Judicial Center; staff expect the lab to be open “no later than June,” but noted equipment calibration and approval by outside agencies remain before full operation.

On communicable disease, KDHE described an “unprecedented tuberculosis outbreak” in one county that remains active and is ongoing in coordination with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state laboratory (KHEL). The department also highlighted reaccreditation by the Public Health Accreditation Board and an antibiotic stewardship analysis that provided feedback to prescribers.

Derek said KDHE will implement a newly awarded federal maternal health grant referred to in the session as the Transforming Maternal Health grant (a 10-year award totaling about $17,000,000) and will work with Medicaid to carry out the program. She said the award is one of 15 statewide grants and will be phased in over the coming months and years.

On childcare, KDHE said it completed a major rewrite of childcare licensing rules, addressing 43 regulations; those revisions were reported to have taken effect Aug. 2. Deputy Secretary Ashley Goss told the committee KDHE used repeated stakeholder listening sessions during the rewrite to inform changes.

Derek outlined Medicaid program statistics and projects. She reported Medicaid enrollment figures “about a total of 440,000” Kansas residents, with roughly “360,000-plus” in Medicaid, about 70,000 in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and about 16,000 in an integrated maternal and child health program; she also said the Medicaid program is “roughly about a $4,000,000,000 program.” Representative Blex referenced a 2024 figure of 360,672 for Medicaid enrollment and asked for five-year trend data, which KDHE offered to provide as follow-up.

KDHE walked through federal oversight and funding: CMS (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) must approve many state changes, Derek said, and the federal government pays an estimated 62% of Kansas medical costs for Medicaid, about 70% for the children’s program and between 50% and 90% for personnel and IT costs depending on the program and funding source.

Derek said Kansas is a managed-care state: about 95% of the Medicaid population is in managed care. The department named the three contracted Medicaid managed care organizations as Healthy Blue (which replaced Aetna), Centene (Sunflower Health Plan) and UnitedHealthcare. Key Medicaid work for 2025 listed by KDHE includes fully implementing KanCare 3.0 (the next managed care contract), initiating year 1 of the maternal health grant, completing phases 2 and 3 of a Medicaid rate study and publishing public-facing dashboards and more analytics on Medicaid and managed care performance.

KDHE described the rate study as a first formal prioritization process to compare Kansas Medicaid rates with neighboring states (Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado) and Medicare where applicable; the study is intended to provide an analytic basis for rate decisions rather than ad hoc requests. KDHE also said it created a data and analytics bureau to increase public availability of Medicaid information.

Committee members asked KDHE for follow-up data, including five-year enrollment trends, typical timelines for federal approvals (state plan amendments and waivers can range from about 90 days to six months; some waivers under certain authorities have taken as long as a year), and whether the rate study will address provider reimbursement levels. KDHE staff explained federal limits when Medicare covers a code and noted states may use state-only funds to increase rates above Medicare but that federal matching rules constrain some choices.

Derek and her deputies stood for committee questions at the conclusion of the presentation and offered to provide additional detailed data to lawmakers on request.