Topeka ? The Senate on Wednesday defeated a move by Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, to require that the Kansas Cancer Center work with specific healthcare providers before it could spend a $5 million appropriation to help the center gain national designation as a comprehensive cancer center.

Wagle said her budget proviso would allow the Kansas Cancer Center to provide services statewide.

“I just want to make sure that all your cancer patients in your districts have equal access,” Wagle told fellow senators.

But supporters of the Kansas Cancer Center said Wagle’s amendment would hurt the center by tying its hands and hinder negotiations the center is having with private oncologists who want to be partners in the center’s service alliance.

“This is the height of micromanagement by the Legislature,” said Sen. Barbara Allen, R-Overland Park.

Allen read a letter from Jeff Reene, chief operations officer of the Kansas Cancer Center, to Rep. Kenny Wilk, R-Lansing, in which Reene talked about how private oncologist groups would fit into the center’s alliance.

He said private networks, such as US Oncology, which operates the Kansas City Cancer Center, are needed as part of the university’s Kansas Cancer Center efforts, but because they are profit-driven, “delicate negotiations will be necessary to structure an affiliation that serves the interests of both parties.”

Reene added, “We are hopeful that US Oncology’s interactions directly with the legislature will not give rise to any legislative interest in brokering `a deal’ between the institutions involved.”

Wagle’s amendment would have specified that the Kansas City Cancer Center and a number of other cancer centers be participants in the governing body of the Kansas Cancer Center.

“Let’s make sure the network is in place so that we get treatment to all people across Kansas,” Wagle said.

But other senators said the amendment would hurt the Kansas Cancer Center’s efforts to get designation from the National Cancer Institute.

“This is throwing up a huge impediment on the progress of this initiative,” Sen. Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said.

The Senate rejected Wagle’s amendment 12-28. Area Sens. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, Roger Pine, R-Lawrence, and Hensley voted against the amendment.