LJWorld Reader blogs

Last week, I asked readers to submit suggestions on how the state could save money or be run more efficiently in light of the massive drop in tax collections that has forced cutbacks in most areas of state government.

I received several ideas and questions, in fact more than I could get to, but I will chase them all down.

One that came in late in the week concerned why officials at Oklahoma University were able to freeze tuition this year, but not state universities in Kansas. That’s a good question and I intend to get an answer this week. If you have any recommendations on how the state can get through this budget crisis, especially if you are a state employee with inner knowledge of what is going on, please contact me at srothschild@ljworld.com or srworldks@yahoo.com or at 785-423-0668 or 785-354-4222.

Anyway, here are the answers to a couple of comments posed by readers.

Dental program

A Lawrence man read our story about how a Medicaid program to provide dental care to low-income pregnant women has never gotten off the ground because while lawmakers appropriated enough to cover the actual service, they failed to appropriate the funds to cover the administrative expenses of the new benefit.

He asked why couldn’t a non-profit agency provide the administrative support, and could homeless people be covered by the program.

Peter Hancock, a spokesman for the Kansas Health Policy Authority, gave me this response: “Medicaid reimburses health care providers for treating Medicaid beneficiaries. If a non-profit organization qualifies as a Medicaid provider, it can receive reimbursement for allowable expenses. KHPA, however, is the single state Medicaid agency and, thus, is responsible for determining who is eligible to receive benefits and which providers can receive payments. People qualify to receive Medicaid benefits based on their income. If a homeless person meets the income guidelines, that person can qualify to receive benefits.”

Illegal immigrants

A reader from Ottawa said the state could save money by cutting benefits for illegal immigrants. He said as a former state employee he had first-hand knowledge of illegal immigrants receiving funds under the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP), which is federally funded and pays a portion of energy costs.

Michelle Ponce, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, which administers the program, said non-citizens are not eligible for LIEAP assistance and are unable to receive benefits. “It could theoretically be possible for a non-citizen to be a household member of an individual who receives assistance, but in that case the non-citizen is not considered when calculating the amount of benefit,” she said.