Topeka ? A newly appointed group charged with reducing Kansas health care costs started work today.

Lt. Gov. John Moore, who will lead the Health Care Cost Containment Commission, said the increasing expense of medical care “is presenting a crisis.”

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“We will seek opportunities to simplify the health care administration system to help patients and providers,” he said.

The commission was launched as part of an initiative by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger.

State officials say Kansans spend about $12 billion per year on health care, and about $3 billion of that amount is spent on administration and paperwork.

The commission will study ways to reduce those administrative costs, Moore said. He said nationally administrative costs in health care have increased 37 percent over the past four years.

Much of the increase is due to the lack of standard procedures from insurance plan to insurance plan, he said.

A major problem is that 40 percent to 45 percent of claims for health insurance payments are initially rejected, and then three-fourths of those are eventually accepted upon further review, Moore said.

The Health Care Cost Containment Commission is made up of executives from the health care and insurance industries, physicians, and representatives of labor and business.