Advocacy

A new state law backed by AARP Kansas will help ease the transition from hospital to home for patients and their caregivers, beginning next year.

Kansas ranks 30th when it comes to meeting the long-term care needs of older residents and people with disabilities, and AARP warns more must be done, at an accelerated pace, to meet changing demographic demands. Specific areas of concern in Kansas include support for family caregivers and more effective transitions from nursing homes to home. This, according to a new, comprehensive state-by-state Scorecard from AARP with support of the nation’s leading organizations behind quality long-term care, The Commonwealth Fund and SCAN Foundation.

Great news for our state’s more than 345,000 caregivers and the people for whom they provide care. The Kansas Legislature has passed and Governor Brownback has signed the Kansas Lay Caregivers Act, otherwise known as the Caregiver, Advise, Record and Enable or CARE Act. The new law, which goes into effect on July 1, 2018, will support caregivers when the person they are caring for is hospitalized and then returns home and is in need of care.

With Governor Brownback’s veto of KanCare (the Kansas version of Medicaid) expansion, House Bill 2044, the Kansas House now has the opportunity to put hardworking Kansans first and overturn the governor’s veto. Maren Turner, director of AARP Kansas—with more than 320,000 members age 50 and older in the Sunflower State—issued the following statement, urging the House to take action now.

On February 23, the Kansas Senate voted 38-1 in favor of the Kansas Lay Caregivers Act (SB 68 as amended), otherwise known as the CARE Act. The CARE Act would require Kansas hospitals to give each patient the opportunity to designate a caregiver when they enter the hospital so the caregiver's name can be recorded, the caregiver is informed when the patient is transferred or about to be discharged, and the caregiver is given instruction on how to take care of the patient when he or she returns home. Some patients return home needing complex medical and nursing tasks as they recuperate. The CARE Act helps ensure that the caregiver knows what to do and how to do it giving the patient a better chance of getting well and not being readmitted to the hospital.

At AARP, we believe Medicare is a deal with the American people that must not be broken.

On February 1, 2017, the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, chaired by Senator Vicki Schmidt, heard testimony on Senate Bill 68, the CARE Act. This proposed legislation would support the 345,000 Kansas caregivers who are providing unpaid care to a family member or loved one. The CARE Act, (Caregiver, Advise, Record, Enable Act) is another tool to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations by ensuring that caregivers are acknowledged and instructed on how to care for their loved one when he/she returns home from the hospital. It is a NO COST, commonsense solution to help formalize important discharge practices.

What could have been a $4.54 per month rate increase, was reduced to a $1.25 a month increase for Kansas Gas Service customers as a result of a settlement agreement approved by the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) in November.

AARP Kansas is pressing state lawmakers to introduce a bill in 2017 that could help more private-sector workers save for retirement. The proposal, called “work and save,” would create a payroll-deduction plan that small businesses could offer to their workers. Participation would be voluntary for both employers and employees, and the plan would be portable when a worker changes jobs.

In the legislative session that begins Jan. 9, AARP Kansas once again will be backing a bill that could help family caregivers when a loved one comes home from a hospital stay.