TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new study says expanding Medicaid in Kansas would have a net cost of $47.4 million in the first year.

The nonprofit Kansas Health Institute estimated in the study released Tuesday that an additional 130,000 low-income adults and children would sign up if the program was expanded. That accounts for adults who already are eligible but may not know it, as well as those who already have insurance but would switch if state assistance were available.

The number is lower than previous estimates that 150,000 would sign up for the coverage. KHI policy executive and lead author Kari Bruffett says that’s because economic improvements have left fewer people uninsured.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has made expansion a top priority, although Republican leaders are opposed.

LIBERAL, Kan. (AP) — A pancake-flipping Kansas teacher has bested her trans-Atlantic competitors to win an annual Shrove Tuesday tradition.

Maggie Lapinski ran the 415-yard Liberal, Kansas, leg of the race with a time of 62.98 seconds. That was almost 7 seconds faster than Amy Butler, who ran a similar race in Olney, England, with a time of 70 seconds. Contestants must carry a pancake in a frying pan and flip it at the beginning and end of the race.

Temperatures might be cold but we have a good crowd for the start of the kids race! pic.twitter.com/ztApWmmvtL

— Intl Pancake Day (@IntlPancakeDay) March 5, 2019

The race began in Olney in the 15th century. In 1950, Liberal challenged Olney to an international competition.

Lapinski, who coaches cross country, also won the Liberal leg of the race in 2017, but a winner couldn’t be determined because of a technical glitch in Olney.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Stephanie Mott, a well-known advocate for LGBTQ rights in Kansas, has died.

Pastor Sarah Oglesby-Dunegan of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Topeka says Mott was hospitalized Sunday after apparently suffering a heart attack. She died Monday at the age of 61.

Mott was a mental health clinician at Valeo in Topeka. She led the Kansas Democratic Party’s LGBT caucus, and managed the Topeka chapter of Equality Kansas.

We are all devastated by the loss of Stephanie Mott. We cannot find adequate words to express our grief at her passing, but we will find solace in the knowledge that her life and her work will make Kansas a better place for future generations.
#ksleg #lgbtq pic.twitter.com/f16InIHkMp

— Equality Kansas (@KansasEquality) March 4, 2019

Kansas Democratic Party chairwoman Vicki Hiatt and executive director Ethan Corson said in a statement that Mott was courageous in the face of cowardice while advocating for vulnerable people.

Equality Kansas said in a statement that the group will find solace in the knowledge that Mott’s work will make Kansas a better place for future generations.

By JIM MCLEAN
Kansas News Service

Doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital say a change in the distribution of livers across the country could result in Kansans waiting longer for life-saving transplants.

So they’re backing a bill in the Kansas Legislature that would allow residents who donate their organs to specify whether they want them used to benefit Kansas transplant patients.

“The purpose of the Kansas Donor Rights act is to bring the conversation to the forefront,” said Sean Kumer, a liver transplant surgeon at KU.

Changes in the system used to distribute livers for transplant essentially nationalizing the system have yet to be finalized.

For years, organs have been distributed within regions. That worked well for states, like Kansas, where donor rates were high. It worked less well in states, such as New York and California, where the need for donated organs was high but donor rates were relatively low.

“Here in the Midwest we have a very giving population,” Kumer said, noting that Kansas’ donor rate is consistently around 80 percent compared to 55 percent on the East and West coasts.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ordered the scrapping of the geography-based system after six patients awaiting transplants in California, New York and Massachusetts sued the agency.

“The practical effect of the new policy will be to redistribute livers from states and regions with high rates of organ donation to areas that have historically underperformed,” U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Roy Blunt of Missouri said recently in a guest commentary in The Kansas City Star.

The new policy would disproportionately affect patients rural areas, the senators said.

“This shortsighted liver allocation policy … will not only mean fewer life-saving organs in our part of the country, but it will also adversely affect health outcomes throughout the Midwest,” they said.

In an interview with Modern Healthcare, Sander Florman, director of transplantation for New York’s Mount Sinai Health System, defended the new allocation system.

“In a system that is fundamentally handicapped by having too few organs for too many patients that need them, decisions need to be made and should favor saving the most lives and helping the sickest of our patients first,” Florman said.

If that is the criteria, Kumer said, preference should be given to regions where higher percentages of patients are dying while awaiting surgery. In Kansas, he said, approximately 20 percent of liver transplant patients die on the waiting list compared to about 8 percent in New York.

“Our (mortality) numbers are going to increase and theirs are going to decrease and that’s just not the way we should be running our system,” Kumer said.

The legality of the Kansas legislation could hinge on whether the courts buy the argument that an organ donation is a personal gift, Kumer said.

“It’s a gift, not a natural resource,” he said. “Donors and their families … should have the choice of where they want their organs to go.”

The bill was introduced late,  but its chances of passing are improved by the fact that it has the backing of Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican.

“It will get a hearing soon and we will address it this session,” Denning said.

Jim McLean is the senior correspondent for the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks. 

RENO COUNTY — Authorities are working to determine the cause of a fatal Tuesday morning fire in Reno County.

Just after 2:30a.m., Tuesday, deputies were dispatched to the area of 9 E Horseshoe Lane, Pretty Prairie, in rural Reno County for the report of a structure fire with possible occupants still inside the residence.

Deputies arrived on scene within minutes of being dispatched and found a single story double-wide residence on fire, according to a media release.

The fire spread quickly to other parts of the structure It was reported that Hannah Lynn Perry, 21, was able to get out of the residence with her two children 2-year-old Charlotte and 1-year-old Wyatt and to the neighbor’s house across the street and call 911.

Hannah reported that her grandmother, 70-year-old Judy Kay Alley was still inside the residence.