Kansas veterans homes face staffing gaps as budget shifts nursing costs to off‑budget Medicaid funds

Molly Pratt, fiscal analyst for the Kansas Legislative Research Department, and Bill Turner, executive director of the Kansas Office of Veterans Services, told the Senate Ways and Means Committee the agency is restructuring how it pays for nursing staff and managing carryforward capital funds while pursuing a federal cemetery grant.

The Office of Veterans Services requested $38.7 million for fiscal year 2026, including about $15.5 million in state general funds. Pratt said much of a year‑to‑year drop in contractual services is driven by the agency shifting nursing costs from on‑budget pooled contracts to off‑budget Medicaid funds used to pay contracted nurses, while the agency is also hiring permanent nurses.

Turner said the agency employs roughly 310 people across two state veterans homes, is funded for about 282 positions, and is currently filled “between 260 and 265 positions,” leaving approximately 20–22 funded vacancies. He told the committee those vacancies and daily unplanned absences drive continued, occasional reliance on temporary agency nurses to maintain safe staffing on shifts.

The agency carried forward $979,000 in state general funds into fiscal 2025, Pratt said; about $450,000 accounted for a previously approved supplemental and legislative adjustments, about $400,000 for projects related to veterans cemeteries and about $115,000 for salaries. Pratt also noted a State Institution Building Fund (SIBF) reappropriation of $16.2 million from FY2024 into FY2025, most of it for construction of a new Northeast Kansas Veterans Home and rehabilitation projects at the Kansas Soldiers’ Home and the Kansas Veterans’ Home. The agency told the committee it does not know when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will release the remaining federal share (about 65%), so some SIBF dollars may be reappropriated into a later fiscal year.

The committee heard the Office recently received a National Cemetery Administration grant of $1.3 million to expand interment capacity at the Winfield Veterans Cemetery. Turner also described the agency’s tuition‑assistance agreement with the federal VA for nursing staff (a 50/50 match for education toward RN/LPN credentials).

Turner said the agency is tracking broader federal staffing and contract reductions at the VA but has not observed direct, confirmed disruptions to Kansas veterans’ health-care services: “to date right now, I think we’ve seen reports … there’s no interruption to health care services or to veterans benefit services,” he said, adding that future delays in claim processing remain a concern if federal cuts continue.

Committee members asked for clarification of vacancy and funding levels and how the agency manages short‑term gaps. Turner said the agency tries to hire incrementally toward funded FTEs to reduce reliance on agency nurses while preserving flexibility for short‑term absences and overtime.

The agency presented no supplemental funding requests for FY2026 beyond baseline requests. Pratt and Turner emphasized the capital timing risk tied to federal funds for the Northeast Kansas Veterans Home and noted that unspent SIBF and other capital funds are likely to be reappropriated if federal matching funds are delayed.

Looking ahead, committee staff and the agency said monitoring the VA’s federal staffing and contract decisions will be important for anticipating downstream impacts on claims processing and long‑term care reimbursements.