By Jim McLean
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — The decision by state officials not to expand Medicaid eligibility could deny thousands of uninsured Kansans access to life-saving cancer treatments, according to a recent report by researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

“There are some people who will die of cancer because we’re not able to screen them or provide them with the prevention services they need,” said Dr. Edward Ellerbeck, director of the Cancer Control and Population Health Program at the medical center.

The report, issued in March, estimates that without Medicaid expansion about 40,000 uninsured Kansans may not get necessary screenings for colorectal, breast and cervical cancers or get the medical help they need to quit smoking.

“The potential for improved health and reduced financial impact of cancer would be drastically altered if Kansans with incomes less than 100 percent of FPL (federal poverty level) had access to common life-saving screening and prevention services,” the report concluded.

Currently, most of the approximately 400,000 Kansans enrolled in Medicaid – called KanCare – are poor children, new mothers, the disabled and seniors who need help paying for nursing home care. Able-bodied adults with children are eligible only if they earn less than 33 percent of FPL, or $7,770 annually for a family of four. Adults without children are not eligible.
Under expansion, all adults earning up to 138 percent of poverty – $32,500 for a family of four – would be eligible.

About 40,000 could benefit

The KU report projected that Medicaid expansion would give more than 11,800 Kansans access to smoking prevention services and help more than 4,300 obtain colorectal cancer screenings. In addition, more than 20,000 women who otherwise might not receive screenings for breast and cervical cancer would have access to them if covered by Medicaid.

The projections were based on the number of Kansans expected to fall into the “gap” between 33 percent of FPL and 100 percent of FPL and the numbers within that population whose age or health status would make them eligible for the screenings.

The researchers didn’t include Kansans who earned between 100 percent of FPL and 138 percent of FPL because in addition to Medicaid they would be eligible to receive federal subsidies to help them purchase private insurance.

Tom Bell, president and chief executive of the Kansas Hospital Association, featured the KU report in a recent column he wrote for the association’s newsletter.

“This excellent study is concrete information that providing access to health care to this group of low-income, uninsured Kansans through our KanCare program could improve the health and quality of life of a significant number of our fellow citizens,” Bell wrote.

Kansas hospitals are leading the lobbying effort for expansion because administrators see it as a way to reduce the amount of charity care they provide and to offset reductions in Medicare reimbursements that they agreed to absorb to help pay for the reform law.

The Affordable Care Act called for Medicaid expansion, but the U.S. Supreme Court made it optional for states in a June 2012 ruling. Kansas is one of 19 states – most of them headed by Republican governors opposed to the ACA – that have opted not to expand the program.

Brownback: Mixed messages

Gov. Sam Brownback and Republican legislative leaders have given various reasons for opposing expansion. Initially, they questioned the reliability of the federal government’s promise to pay 100 percent of expansion costs for the first three years and not less than 90 percent thereafter.

More recently, the governor has said he doesn’t want to increase Medicaid enrollment until the state can afford to serve Kansans with physical and developmental disabilities who are now on waiting lists.

However, just before the start of the Medicaid expansion debate, Brownback stressed the importance of early detection in an open letter to “the citizens of Kansas” published as part of the state’s 2012–2016 cancer control plan.

“It is imperative for Kansans to work with their physicians to determine what screenings are appropriate for them based on family history and risk factors,” Brownback wrote. “It is important to understand that being diagnosed with cancer means it is time to fight. Working together, we will beat this disease.”

Limited help available

Since the mid-1990s, more than 20,000 Kansas women have received screenings and treatment for breast and cervical cancer through the Early Detection Works program. The $2.7 million program, funded mostly with federal Medicaid dollars, covers regular cancer screenings for Kansas women ages 50 through 64 and confirmatory tests for women ages 40 through 49 who have cancer symptoms. A limited amount of state money and foundation dollars are available to help women under 40 obtain screenings and treatment.

“We’re screening about 21 percent of the eligible population right now,” said Paula Clayton, director of the Bureau of Health Promotion at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. “Over the years, that has continued to grow.”
Only women who earn less than 225 percent of FPL – about $50,000 a year for a family of four – can qualify for the program.

The Early Detection Works program is important, Ellerbeck said, but it falls far short of addressing the need among low-income women because they must see a provider to enroll.

“How are they going to get in to see a provider to get into the Early Detection Works program if they don’t have any insurance?” he asked. “It certainly isn’t reaching all of the women in need of breast and cervical cancer screening.”

Clayton acknowledges that the Early Detection Works program is only part of the solution. But, she said, it has so far had sufficient resources to serve all eligible women who applied.

“It’s not that we’re turning women away,” she said. “We don’t have a waiting list.”

Even so, Ellerbeck said, the program is no more than a “Band-Aid” in the state’s fight to prevent deaths from treatable cancers.

“It is certainly not taking care of colorectal cancer and it’s certainly not taking care of all of the people who smoke,” he said.

Colorectal cancer is particularly troubling for Ellerbeck, who volunteers once a week at the Swope Health Services safety net clinic in Wyandotte County. Even though 60 percent of colorectal cancer deaths could be prevented by early detection, Ellerbeck said it’s virtually impossible to get colonoscopies for his clinic patients.

“For the most part, we don’t even offer screening tests because we don’t have anything to do with the results,” he said. “We can’t do what’s best for them. It’s very frustrating.”

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The U.S. Senate has confirmed the appointment of a Kansas Supreme Court justice to the federal appeals court that handles cases from six western and Plains states.

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran’s office says the chamber voted 90-3 Monday to confirm Nancy Moritz to the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. President Barack Obama nominated Moritz in August 2013.

The 54-year-old Moritz will fill the vacancy created in 2011 when Judge Deanell Tacha (TAH’-hah) retired and became dean of the law school at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Tacha is from Kansas.

Moritz is a former federal prosecutor. She was appointed to the Kansas Court of Appeals in 2004 and the state Supreme Court in 2010.

Moran said Moritz is well-prepared for the federal court.

CHANUTE—A Kansas woman was hit and killed in a bank drive through on Monday in Neosho County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1993 Dodge Grand Caravan driven by Richard A. Pefley, 84, Chanute was in the bank drive thru at Commerce Bank on south Grant Street in Chanute.

A passenger in the van Gloria G. Pefley, 83, exited the vehicle. She walked in front of the van and was run over.

The van continued on striking a 1996 Chevy pickup pulling a trailer and boat.

Pefley was pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were reported.

TOPEKA – (May 5, 2014) – Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt issued the following statement on today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding prayer at the opening of certain public meetings:

“Today’s decision reaffirms that the Constitution does not command abandonment of America’s long tradition of opening certain public meetings with prayer. Although this specific case involved a town council in New York, Kansas joined in support in order to protect the long tradition of opening prayer embraced by both houses of the Kansas Legislature and other public bodies in our state. I’m pleased with the outcome, and we will continue to defend the laws and practices of the state of Kansas against legal challenge.”

The Supreme Court today upheld prayer at the opening of certain public meetings in Town of Greece v. Galloway. Attorney General Schmidt joined in a friend-of-the-court brief encouraging that outcome.

By KYLE CRANE
KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA — Stacy Donovan of Lawrence has been a criminal defense lawyer for the past 16 years. She has defended countless suspects of aggravated burglary, and has also been a victim.

In February 2012, four unarmed, young men burglarized her home while she, her husband and two daughters were sleeping. She hadn’t realized what happened until she was awakened by a phone call from a police officer. The police had stopped the suspects for a traffic violation, and found items from Donovan’s home in their possession.

“The next few nights were fairly sleepless for all of us in our family,” said Donovan, the chief district defender of the Third Judicial District Public Defender’s Office. “The kids asked a lot of questions about bad guys afterward. We tried to assure them that everybody makes mistakes and sometimes those mistakes hurt other people.”

In February, Kansas’ lawmakers proposed legislation to increase the punishment for individuals who commit such crimes.

Senate Bill 415 would raise the penalty levels for burglary and aggravated burglary of a dwelling, or a person’s place of residence. It would also increase the penalty for burglars who intend to steal a firearm from a residence.

Kansas law defines burglary as knowingly and without authority entering into or remaining within any dwelling, building, or privately owned structure, which includes motor vehicles, with intent to commit a felony, theft or sexual battery. Aggravated burglary is committed when a person, other than the burglar, is present.

According to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation’s most recent crime report, there were 13,912 reported burglaries in Kansas in 2012, which was a 3 percent increase from 2011.

Todd Thompson, a Leavenworth County attorney and proponent of the bill, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that a home burglary could interfere with a family’s wellbeing more than almost any other crime affecting a person.

“We often hear from people who discuss not being able to sleep, trust, or feel confident in leaving their homes for an extended period of time,” Thompson said.

According to Thompson, victims often appear at a suspect’s sentencing and urge the court to impose the harshest punishment possible. However, defendants are frequently given lenient sentences when compared to other non-violent, victimless offenses.

“Current sentences as ordered by the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines do not fit the crime when factoring the monetary and psychological toll affecting victims,” Thompson said.

Stacey Donovan said she appeared at the sentencing for the 18-year-old suspect who took the blame for burglarizing her home. She asked the judge to not place him in prison.

“Their age, the fact that he didn’t have any criminal history and that he didn’t have any weapons made me feel that this is somebody who, if he was on probation, could be given a chance to turn things around,” Donovan said.

The recommended sentencing for a felony conviction depends on the severity level of the crime committed and the offender’s criminal history. The sentencing court has discretion to choose an appropriate punishment based on a range of presumed sentences and mitigating circumstances, such as a victim’s request for mercy on the defendant.

The bill would raise the penalty for burglary of a dwelling from a severity level 7, nonperson felony, to a level 6, person felony. For a first-time offender, the standard presumed sentence would be 34 months in prison, as opposed to two years of probation. For aggravated burglary of a dwelling, the penalty would increase from a level 5, person felony, to level 4. The presumed prison term for a first-time offender would be 66 months, as opposed to 52 months.

Burglary of a dwelling with the intent to steal a firearm would become a level 5, person felony, but remain a nonperson felony if taken place in a non-dwelling.

Passage of the law would likely result in more and longer prison sentences. The Kansas Sentencing Commission estimated that it would require upwards to 77 additional adult prison beds in fiscal year 2015, and up to 289 beds by 2024.

According to the Sentencing Commission’s FY 2014 Adult Inmate Prison Population Projections report, without passage of the bill, adult correction facilities will be over capacity by 2017. While current facilities could handle the potential population increase in the short term, a construction project for new cell houses at the El Dorado Correctional Facility would be necessary in the near future. The construction and operation costs of the project would amount to $32.8 million.

As of Friday, Kansas prisons housed 9,624 inmates, 12 under capacity.

Jennifer Roth, a representative of the Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said that a solution to free up prison beds would be to revise Kansas’ definition of aggravated burglary to exclude premises that are at the time open to the public, such as retail stores. The change would prevent most repeat shoplifters from going to prison.

When a person is charged with theft or disorderly conduct in a store, such as Walmart, the business often bans the person from reentering its stores. If that person reenters the store and shoplifts, they are often charged with aggravated burglary under Kansas law, as they knowingly entered the populated store without permission with the intent to steal.

“This is not consistent with the intended policy of incarcerating more dangerous persons,” Roth said.

According to Roth, such offenders should, instead, be charged with criminal trespass or theft, which is consistent with the Model Penal Code adopted by several other states.

Stacey Donovan said she thinks the general public would be shocked to know that a shoplifter could be charged with aggravated burglary.

“To equate stealing from a retail store with a home invasion is senseless and a miscarriage of justice,” Donavon said. “The level of danger and harm caused by those two crimes is completely different.”

Senate Bill 415 has yet to pass through the Senate to the House for consideration. However, the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended passage of the bill.

Kyle Crane is a University of Kansas senior journalism student from Overland Park.

Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON — The city of Hutchinson will host the 96th annual American Legion State Convention May 16 to 18 at Ramada Hotel and Conference Center.

Representatives of the American Legion, Sons of the American Legion and American Legion Auxiliary from across Kansas will gather to conduct individual conventions. Featured speakers will include Sen. Pat Roberts, National Vice-Commander Wayne Satrom, National President Nancy Brown-Park, SAL National Vice-Commander Bradley Schroenghamer and the nation’s leading candidate for National Commander Mike Helm of Norcatur.

Saturday’s joint session of the Legion, Sons, and Auxiliary will convene at 7:50 AM. The opening session will feature an address by Senator Roberts, the presentation of awards to youth program Champions, the Commander’s Americanism award, and the Service Officer of the Year Award. Legion Firefighter of the Year recipient Brian Fornwalt of Liberal will be honored for his service. Hutchinson native Bill Shaffer of KTWU-TV in Topeka and Chad Lawhorn of the Lawrence Journal World will be presented the Legion’s Fourth Estate Awards. Bechtel Construction Co. will be presented awards for hiring veterans and older workers.

For more information, visit www.ksamlegion.org.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Winter wheat is deteriorating in Kansas amid dry, windy weather conditions and little rain.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that almost half of the state’s crop is faring poorly.

What little rain Kansas got last week was limited to eastern and northern counties. Topsoil moisture is short or very short in 70 percent of Kansas.

The weekly snapshot shows 18 percent of winter wheat rated as very poor and 29 percent as poor. About 36 percent is in fair condition with 16 percent in good and 1 percent in excellent condition. About 15 percent of the crop has now headed.

The agency also reports that 52 percent of the corn, 1 percent of the sorghum and 4 percent of the soybeans have been planted.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A federal appeals court has dismissed a retaliation lawsuit filed by a custodian found sunbathing naked on the roof of the northeast Kansas elementary school where he worked.

The Kansas City, Kansas, school district in 2007 gave Charles Davis a 30-day unpaid suspension and demoted him from his position as head custodian following the incident.

Davis later applied for head custodian jobs at seven schools in the district but was rejected. His claims against the district included racial discrimination and retaliation for filing the discrimination claim.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a lower court’s award of summary judgment dismissing the lawsuit. The appeals court said Davis failed to prove he was the victim of retaliation.