After 113 days, one day shy of the historically long 2015 session, legislators concluded their business and adjourned the 2017 session. The wrap-up session stretched from May 1 all the way through mid-June as legislators worked to reach agreement on state appropriations, a revenue package to fund the state deficit and a school funding formula to satisfy the Supreme Court ruling requiring equitable statewide funding.
Friday, May 26, marked the 96th day of the Legislative Session and the third full week of the Wrap-Up Session. Though the work of the legislature has been limited to focus on K-12 funding, tax considerations and the budget, there has been little coalescing on any of these issues.
Kansas physicians are successfully making the transition to filing death certificates electronically, since the requirements changed January 1 of this year. The Office of Vital Statistics reports an impressive increase from fewer than 500 physicians using the VRVweb Electronic Death Record System in July 2016 to more than 2,700 users as of April 2017. Partnering organizations, the Kansas Healthcare Collaborative and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, worked with facilities across the state to coordinate training opportunities to help physicians and staff comply with the mandate. These efforts have proven successful.
CMS is reviewing claims and letting practices know which clinicians need to take part in MIPS, the Merit-based Incentive Payment System. MIPS is a part of the new Quality Payment Program. Sometime this month, practices should expect to receive a letter from WPS GHA the Medicare Administrative Contractor that processes Medicare Part B claims for Kansas. The letter is expected to tell the participation status of each MIPS clinician associated with the Taxpayer Identification Number.
The Kansas Foundation for Medical Care, Inc., is conducting a KanCare Provider Experience Survey on behalf of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Division of Health Care Finance. The brief survey covers a variety of provider experience questions and is designed to help ensure that the KanCare program is as responsive and provider-friendly as possible. The survey is estimated to take approximately 5 minutes to complete.