By Dave Ranney, KHI News Service, February 16, 2011
TOPEKA — The Kansas Department on Aging on Wednesday announced it would lay off as many as 20 full-time employees.
KDoA Secretary Shawn Sullivan, testifying before a Senate budget subcommittee, said the layoffs were needed to avoid making frail seniors wait for services that keep them out of nursing homes.
Sullivan said he thought some - but not all - of the positions would be vacant before they would be eliminated.
"Because of all the regulations we have to follow when it comes to layoff plans and notices, I’d rather not get into specifics," Sullivan told KHI News Service.
He declined to say whether the layoffs would affect central-office workers more than those outside Topeka.
Earlier, Estelle Montgomery, a fiscal analyst with the Legislative Research Department, said the 20 positions were, "currently filled."
Officials said they plan the lay-offs in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
KDoA officals have said the department needs an additional $14 million, including $5.8 million from the State General Fund, to offset the costs of an additional 787 frail seniors receiving in-home services.
Gov. Sam Brownback has proposed adding only $4.7 million to the agency's budget to avoid waiting lists, including $2 million from the general fund.
Sullivan said he’s considering additional cuts in spending, noting that projections show that if the department enacts a waiting list on July 1, "there would be between 200 and 300 clients on that list by the end of fiscal year 2012," which would end June 30, 2012.
Historically, KDoA has avoided a waiting list because limiting frail seniors’ access to services increases the likelihood more will be admitted to nursing homes, which generally ends up costing the state more than home- and community-based services.
States are required to cover nursing-home care for frail, low-income seniors; but in-home services are not subject to a federal mandate and are part of a state's discretionary spending.
More than 91 percent of KDoA’s $572.9 million annual budget is spent on nursing home care.
Brownback also has proposed a 10 percent cut in the state-funded portion of the department’s home-delivered and congregate meals programs and a 20 percent cut in Senior Care Act-funded grants.
Across the state, area agencies on aging use Senior Care Act dollars — $6.3 million in the current fiscal year — to pay for in-home services for frail seniors who are low-income but ineligible for Medicaid.
Advocates for the elderly are expected to testify before the subcommittee on Thursday.
"The services we’re talking about here – especially the Senior Care Act and the meals program – are what keep seniors beyond the doorways of hospitals and nursing homes, which, as we all know, are just so expensive," said Julie Govert Walter, executive director at the North Central Flint Hills Area Agency on Aging in Manhattan. "But this isn’t just about money. This is a about caring – caring is a family value that we all celebrate in this state. "The Senior Care Act and the meals programs are hallmarks of that family value."
Walter said she will remind subcommittee members that the proposed cuts in services will affect seniors and their caregivers.
"These are services that provide support for frail seniors and for those unpaid and wonderful family caregivers in every county," Walter said. "This isn’t just about seniors, it’s about families."