The giant tax and spending bill President Donald Trump signed into law last week includes large cuts in health care spending. In response, states are scrambling to shield their hospitals from the looming loss of hundreds of millions in federal funding.
In Kansas, the Kansas Hospital Association had a virtual meeting with U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran to review pieces of the massive legislation that impacts Kansas. Moran and others were able to make amendments to the bill to benefit Kansas in the final version.
The tax and spending bill cuts billions of dollars from Medicaid, the public health insurance program for people with low incomes that’s jointly funded by states and the federal government. Under the measure, payments to hospitals or nursing facilities may decrease in at least 29 states, according to an analysis by KFF, a nonprofit health policy group.
Facing such budget shortfalls, states may have to stop offering optional Medicaid benefits such as vision and dental, reduce the rates they pay providers — which could shrink access for Medicaid enrollees — and change eligibility requirements so that fewer people qualify for coverage.
Policymakers and health experts worry the loss of funding also will endanger hospitals, particularly those in rural areas, driving up uncompensated care and forcing them to cut services or close entirely.
Last week in his virtual meeting with Kansas hospital officials, Moran highlighted several challenges in the original Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that were mitigated in the final version.
Kansas hospital officials on the call were able to ask questions, share concerns and thank Moran for his leadership and advocating for Kansas and Kansas hospitals, according to the Kansas Hospital Association release on the meeting.
Specific issues discussed included how the bill maintains language grandfathering Kansas’ provider assessment and state directed payment rates, including language protecting the enhanced support for Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Emergency Hospitals approved by the Kansas Legislature earlier this year. Moran highlighted the Rural Health Transformation Fund. This fund was increased to $50 billion ($10 billion per year for five years). He also discussed delaying See MORAN, Page 6.
the wind down of the Medicaid state directed payments for an additional year, which will be a benefit to Kansas hospitals, the KHA release said.
“Kansas hospitals are appreciative of Sen. Moran’s work to ensure hospitals will continue to be eligible to receive up to $5 billion in additional Medicaid payments over the next 10 years through the Kansas provider assessment and state directed payment programs. This funding was in jeopardy with the original Senate language in the bill. Kansas will now be able to proceed with the provider assessment that was approved by the Kansas Legislature earlier this year,” the KHA release said.
Labette Health CEO Brian Williams released a statement this week about the meeting with Moran.
He wrote that there have been many news and social media posts related to the One Big Beautiful Bill. While the bill has many facets beyond health care and Medicaid, these two issues have been a major focus on many people’s minds with a lot of misinformation and misleading posts about hospital closures and doom and gloom, Williams wrote.
Labette Health and many of the rural hospitals in Southeast Kansas will benefit in the near term from many of the provisions included in the law, Williams wrote. It allows Kansas hospitals to have an equal footing with many other states on state directed payments and the hospital provider tax as it increases the fund from its current 3% to a federally allowable upper limit of 6% for Kansas. It also provides a twoyear delay before reductions to these provisions of the federal matching funds begin, which will now be 2028 instead of 2026. Since Kansas did not expand Medicaid, its Medicaid patients will not see their providers receive the reimbursement reductions that Medicaid expansion states will see with the reduction in federal matching funds.
Williams wrote that Moran and his staff instituted the changes in the final One Big Beautiful Bill that will benefit Kansas hospitals. These changes were supported by KHA staff and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
“I am not aware of any hospitals in Southeast Kansas that are on the verge on any type of closure on insolvency. The work that we do in health care is about safety, quality and service, and that is where I ask you to continue to focus your thoughts, passion and talents. If we continue to do the work that we have done the past 10 years and work as a team, we will have the privilege to continue to make a difference in our communities,” Williams wrote.
