Health Committees Make Policy Recommendations to 2026 Legislature
Heather Braum | October 29, 2025
Over the past several months, three legislative committees met to discuss health topics, including oversight of the KanCare (Medicaid and CHIP) and Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) programs.
Below are links to meeting documents and the YouTube recordings for each meeting, as well as summaries and recommendations Committees will give to the 2026 Legislature.
2025 Special Committee on Health and Social Services
|
Date |
Document Links |
YouTube Recording |
|
August 19-20, 2025 |
||
| September 24-25, 2025 | ||
| October 1-2, 2025 |
Across three rounds of two-day meetings, lawmakers on the 2025 Special Committee on Health and Social Services reviewed the impact of contract nursing to keep state hospitals open; discussed the Intellectual and Development Disabilities (IDD) waiver, including listening to public comment from families and providers; and assessed the status of ongoing long-term care nursing facility surveying issues. Discussions included the impact of workforce shortages, preparing students for health care professions, and progress made on the behavioral health system in Kansas over the past few years.
The Committee’s final day on October 2 included reviewing follow-up information requested at previous meetings, particularly on the contract nursing issue connected to behavioral health. They also discussed the Committee’s recommendations to the 2026 Legislature.
Recommendations
The Committee focused its recommendations on state hospital staffing, mental health providers, HCBS waivers, and waiver waiting lists. A large focus of this Committee’s time over the past three months was state hospitals and their reliance on contract nursing.
Final discussion of recommendations included developing cost-effective alternatives for state hospitals instead of relying on contract nursing, compiling a comprehensive list of all Kansas mental health providers, and other recommendations connected to the state hospitals. Recommendations also included exploring different ways to recruit more nursing instructors and study nursing program capacity.
Other recommendations focused on the IDD waiver, including requesting a project timeline so the Community Support Waiver can be submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and how the state can upgrade the software for the waiting list system so individuals are able to see where they are on the waiting list.
2025 Special Committee on Pharmaceutical Studies
|
Date |
Document Links |
YouTube Recording |
|
September 26, 2025 |
This one-day special committee reviewed current programs that impact medical facilities and funding, including the complex federal 340B program.
According to Commonwealth Fund, “the 340B Drug Pricing Program requires drug manufacturers to provide significant price discounts on outpatient drugs” to 340B program-enrolled federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and certain hospitals that provide a lot of care to uninsured or underinsured populations (known as disproportionate share hospitals).
These providers “buy discounted outpatient prescription drugs from manufacturers and bill payers at the non-discounted price. In this way, the program generates revenue for these hospitals and clinics so they can expand care for low-income and uninsured patients.”
The Committee also heard about concerns with Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and their impact on local pharmacies.
Conferees included out-of-state groups, as well as several Kansas health care providers.
No Formal Recommendations
At the end of this one-day meeting, lawmakers did not provide any formal recommendations to the 2026 Legislature. There was discussion around the need for transparency for the 340B program and what providers (including hospitals and FQHCs) receive from the program. Yet, lawmakers also discussed that a federal fix is really what is needed, which continues to be worked on by Congress. At times, pending state legislation SB 284 was referenced, which easily passed the Kansas Senate this past session but has yet to receive a hearing in the Kansans House. In the end, the Committee adjourned without voting on any formal recommendations.
2025 Meetings of the Robert G. (Bob) Bethell Joint Committee on Home and Community Based Services and KanCare Oversight
|
Date |
Document Links |
YouTube Recording |
|
February 21, 2025 |
||
|
April 14, 2025 |
||
|
July 14-15, 2025 |
Agenda + Day 1 Testimony/Documents |
|
|
October 13-14, 2025 |
Agenda + Day 1 Testimony/Documents |
Since the beginning of 2025, the Robert G. (Bob) Bethell Joint Committee on Home and Community Based Services and KanCare Oversight Committee has heard from:
- The Kansas Department of Health and Environment — Division of Healthcare Finance
- The Kansas Department on Aging and Disability Services
- The Medicaid Inspector General
- Managed care companies (MCOs)
- Health care providers
- Members of the public, including concerned parents
Throughout its six meeting days, presentations, testimony, and lawmaker questions reviewed various aspects of the state’s KanCare (Medicaid + CHIP) program, as well as the state’s HCBS waiver programs.
KAC submitted testimony several times for public comment opportunities, including remarks focused on increasing the Committee’s oversight effectiveness and making permanent updates to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Other testimony shared concerns about potential coming waiting lists for some of the state’s HCBS waivers, including the technology assistance waiver’s specialized medical services. This waiver keeps children at home and out of hospitals or institutions, including 24-hour private duty nursing.
State agencies also shared how H.R. 1 (passed by Congress this summer) could impact the state moving forward.
On the final meeting day, lawmakers discussed and passed several recommendations. This Committee will meet next in January 2026.
Recommendations
Of particular note to KAC due to our advocacy on this priority for four years, the Committee recommended that the 2026 Legislature review HB 2386, which would remove the outdated, year-specific language regarding the federal poverty level for eligibility for CHIP. With the Committee’s support, we hope we can get this policy across the finish line in 2026.
Other recommendations reflected many issues heavily discussed by the Committee over its four rounds of meetings.
After concerning testimony was delivered about people – especially children — using AI chatbots for mental health services, the Committee recommended an informational hearing on this topic be held during the session in the House Committee on Health and Human Services.
The committee also recommended a workgroup for key stakeholders involved in complex wheelchairs be formed and a report be given back to this Committee in January to start looking at maintenance and billing processes.
Recommendations also included exploring options to address current health care system gaps in paying for mobile sedation dentistry services, increasing IDD waiver slots, and requesting that the Governor add the chair, vice chair, and ranking minority member of the Bethell Committee to the Rural Health Innovation Alliance, which oversees the application to and implementation of Kansas’ Rural Health Transformation Program.
Looking to 2026 Legislative Action
A full report from each of these committees will be developed by the Kansas Legislative Research Department (KLRD) over the next few months and will be posted online at the start of the 2026 session on the KLRD website. When the 2026 session begins, we’ll be watching to see if the full Legislature acts on any of these recommendations.
< Back to the news listShare
