LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The city of Lawrence is creating a security plan to comply with a state law allowing people to carry concealed guns.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the city attorney’s office has proposed funds in the 2017 budget to install personnel and equipment security at entrances to public buildings in anticipation of the Personal and Family Protection Act’s expiration in 2017.

The act, passed in 2013, allowed Lawrence and other cities to ban concealed weapons for four years before complying with a state law that says concealed firearms are allowed in public buildings unless the structures are equipped with security measures.

The security measures are being considered at City Hall, the municipal court, the public library and the police department’s investigations and training center.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A 70-year-old cab driver faces charges accusing him of raping a female passenger in Johnson County.

The Kansas City Star reports Abdul S. Sayed, of Olathe, is charged in Johnson County District Court with rape and aggravated criminal sodomy. A criminal complaint filed Thursday says the alleged assault occurred Dec. 13.

The complaint alleges that the victim was “overcome by force of fear” or was unable to give consent to sexual contact because of intoxication.

Online court records don’t list a lawyer for Sayed, who has a first appearance scheduled for Friday. His bond was set at $500,000.

Sayed was a driver for the Atlas Cab Co. at the time of the alleged assault. The company said Friday that Sayed was fired about three months ago.

BY JIM MCLEAN

Kansas health care providers will urge federal officials to reject Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposed Medicaid cuts and may challenge them in court.

The recently announced cuts would reduce state expenditures for KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, by $56.3 million and trigger a loss of approximately $72.3 million in federal funds. Combined, the managed care organizations that administer $3 billion KanCare program and the health care and service providers they have contracts with would be forced to absorb more than $128 million in cuts.

Of particular concern to providers is the proposed 4 percent reduction in reimbursement rates, which would amount to about $87 million of the $128 million total.

“In addition to being bad policy, the administration’s proposal to cut provider reimbursement would be inconsistent with state and federal law,” Tom Bell, chief executive of the Kansas Hospital Association, said in a recent letter to Brownback. “It would also be inconsistent with and not permitted by provider contracts in place with all Kansas hospitals. As such, we will challenge these proposed cuts in any appropriate way.”

Reductions of the magnitude being proposed will make it harder for the approximately 425,000 low-income children and families, elderly adults and people with disabilities covered by KanCare to access services, Bell said in an interview.

“The effect of these cuts will be to make providers less likely to participate (in KanCare) and ultimately make it even more difficult for vulnerable people to get the health care they need,” he said. “And why in the world would we want to do that?”

State officials must obtain approval from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to fully implement the cuts. But Brownback administration officials have said the reductions will take effect July 1 regardless of whether CMS has approved them.

“From our perspective, that’s fairly presumptuous,” Bell said. “I think the assumption on the part of the state is that CMS will just rubber stamp this. But our hope is that because so many people are concerned about the effect on access that CMS will take a very serious look at this. This is not your typical state plan amendment.”

Michael Randol, director of the Division of Health Care Finance in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said regardless of when CMS approves the cuts, they will be retroactive to July 1. If there is significant lag time between the effective date of the cuts and when CMS approves them, it could increase their impact by requiring providers to absorb a year’s worth of cuts in a matter of months.

Randol said he believes the state can legally impose the cuts pending CMS approval.

“I am confident in what we’re doing,” he said.

Julie Brookhart, a CMS spokesperson, said states can implement Medicaid changes while the agency is reviewing them.

“For a July 1, 2016, effective date, the state Medicaid agency would need to submit a state plan amendment by September 30, 2016, as the amendments can be retroactive,” Brookhart said in an email.

Still, those attempting to stop the cuts see timing as a potentially critical issue. Hospital association lawyers are assessing the chances of obtaining a court order to delay the cuts.

“We’re absolutely taking a look at that,” Bell said.

The extent to which the planned reductions in provider reimbursements affect KanCare patients’ access to care will be among the issues that CMS considers. Federal law requires that reimbursement rates be “sufficient to enlist enough providers” to ensure that Medicaid recipients get roughly the same level of services as the general population, Brookhart said.

In defending the cuts, Randol pointed to the 10 percent reduction in Medicaid reimbursement rates ordered in 2010 by former Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson during the Great Recession. He said Brownback administration officials reviewed those cuts when crafting their plan.

“We tried to maintain some semblance of consistency,” he said.

The current situation doesn’t compare to 2010, said Kyle Kessler, executive director of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas

“The cuts under Parkinson were the result of a recession and were temporary,” Kessler said. “That’s not what this is.”

The Brownback Medicaid cuts are the latest in a series of actions taken by the governor and lawmakers to cover chronic budget shortfalls that many believe have been caused by Brownback’s tax policies, specifically the income tax cuts and exemptions he pushed through the Legislature in 2012.

Because the budget problems appear likely to continue, Kessler said providers are concerned the proposed cuts may be permanent.

“Without a plan for restoration, the assumption has to be that they’re indefinite,” Kessler said.

Kansas hospital administrators share that concern, Bell said.

“What we’ve been told is that they are ‘indefinite,’” he said. “I think it’s hard to look at that word and not think that it may also mean permanent.”

Bell also questions whether the cuts are necessary. With a projected ending balance of $87.1 million in fiscal year 2017, Bell said the state could forgo the KanCare cuts and still finish the year with approximately $30 million in the treasury.

The Brownback news release announcing the budget reductions said they were being made to “continue to slow the growth of government” and signaled the possibility of additional cuts to Medicaid and higher education if the Kansas Supreme Court orders the state to increase funding for public schools.

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

HUTCHINSON — A Kansas woman saw her bond increase after she made a first appearance on three serious charges.

Michala Cooprider, 20, Haven, faces potential charges of aggravated battery, aggravated intimidation of witness and aggravated burglary.

Police say on May 23, she entered a home in the 600 Block of East 7th Street in Hutchinson and battered a woman who was still in bed.

The victim had injuries so severe, she was taken to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center for treatment and had to have 15 staples put in for her wounds.

Police believe she was asked to beat the victim, Lacy Lomax, because of her allegedly being a snitch for telling on other individuals for other crimes.

After hearing arguments from the state, Magistrate Judge Cheryl Allen raised Cooprider’s bond from $37,600 to $50,000.

A second person has been arrested in association with this case.

Joshua Bradbury faces the same charges but also is jailed for distribution of drugs, drug paraphernalia and no tax stamp.

DETROIT (AP) — Eight automakers are recalling more than 12 million vehicles in the U.S. to replace Takata air bag inflators that can explode with too much force.

Documents detailing recalls by Honda, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Ferrari and Mitsubishi were posted Friday by the government. Check the list of vehicles here.

They’re part of a massive expansion of Takata air bag recalls announced earlier this month. Seventeen automakers are adding 35 million-to-40 million inflators to what already was the largest auto recall in U.S. history.

Friday’s recalls include passenger air bags mainly in older models in areas along the Gulf Coast with high heat and humidity.

Takata inflators can malfunction and spew shrapnel into drivers and passengers when exposed to humidity and repeated hot-and-cold cycles.

SEDGWICK COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County are investigating a suspect in connection with a theft of costumes from the Blue Man Group while the performance artists were in Wichita in April.

Tips that came in from the photo released by police helped authorities identify the suspect. He was arrested and has been charged for burglary and theft, according to a social media report.

The costumes are worth more than $1,000.

The Blue Man Group was in Wichita for two nights of shows at Century II Auditorium.

SALINE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating an alleged on-line scam.

A Salina woman told police she was job searching online, when she found an offer to pay her $350 a week to place a decal of “Amp” energy drink on her car for three months, according to Police Captain Mike Sweeney.

On May 23rd she placed a check totaling $990 from Merck-Sharp-Dohme in her bank account.

A note with the check instructed her to hold out $390 for her salary and gas money, but there was no decal.

The remaining funds from the check were to be wired to someone in New York.

Following a two day hold on the check by her bank, the woman went to Walmart to wire the rest of the money but was told by an employee it appeared to be a scam.

The woman is out $187 after making purchases from her checking account from money she did not have.

She received another check Thursday with a note with similar instructions.

The envelope that accompanied the check on n Thursday had a return address for Salina Supply at 302 N. Santa Fe.

Sweeney said scammers will place the address of a local business to make the scam look legitimate.