After four years of filling out four different sets of paperwork to join Kansas Medicaid, or KanCare, health care providers will soon only have to fill out one.
State officials announced that they are standardizing the credentialing process for the three private insurance companies that administer KanCare, as well as the state’s own provider forms.
The move comes after a raft of providers told a legislative oversight committee last month that the current process is tedious and duplicative.
“We have listened to providers’ comments and the direction we received from the KanCare oversight committee and are making the system more user-friendly for the providers,” said Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer.
Sen. Laura Kelly, the top Democrat on the oversight committee, said the credentialing process could have been streamlined earlier, but the Republican-led committee didn’t have the political will to demand it of the Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration and the KanCare companies.
She said the committee served as “more of a cheerleader” for KanCare until members saw Democrats and moderate Republicans make election-year gains on discontent with Brownback.
“I don’t think we performed as an oversight committee the first few years since we were in place,” Kelly said. “I think that has just come, quite honestly, since the primary when I think a lot of folks got the message that this is important and we want it to work right.”
Andy Marso is a reporter for KCUR’s Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics in Kansas. You can reach him on Twitter @andymarso
