Author: Nancy McCready

FAN Webinar

Posted on by Nancy McCready

Want to get more involved in your community? Learn more about FAN!

Healthy Congregations churches are invited to join a webinar from 12-1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, to discuss the recently updated Faith-Based Animator Network, or FAN, special grant opportunity.

FAN is a paid learning opportunity offered by The Neighboring Movement. It’s for those who want to dive deep into neighboring and ABCD from a faith-based perspective.

Learn more about this program here.

The webinar will discuss this recently updated program and the opportunity it provides to you and those in your congregation.

Please register for this webinar below.

FAN Webinar-November 2024

Learn about FAN!

This opportunity is open to all Health Congregations churches. Completion of the Good Neighbor Experiment is not required. Instructions on how to join the webinar will be emailed to you after you register.
(pastor, staff, volunteer, outreach team leader, etc.)
(Optional) add any comments, notes, or questions you’d like us to see.

Faith-Based Animator Network

Posted on by Nancy McCready

Offered through The Neighboring Movement organization, the Faith-Based Animator Network (FAN) is a paid learning opportunity for those wanting to dive deep into neighboring and ABCD from a faith-based perspective.

Watch this recent webinar to learn about this special opportunity! View the slides from this presentation here.

FAN seeks to form Community Animators and connectors who are covenantally dedicated to their neighborhoods, including its people, ecology and associations. These “Animators” recognize that God has abundantly gifted all their immediate neighbors with talents, passion and stories, associational ties, informal networks of exchange, and physical assets.

By training in “neighboring” and asset-based community development, they develop the tools to joyfully step into the role of “Community Connector,” working with the Great Weaver that is the Holy Spirit to discover hidden local assets, connect them to one another, and mobilize them toward the common dreams of God and their neighbors.

Animators are paid to build face-to-face relationships and curate an asset map over a 14-week cohort. They can also apply for a second phase, in which they carry out a relationship-driven, asset-based project that connects their neighbors and their congregation.

Throughout the cohort and beyond, animators form a community of practice and “community of care” to encourage, teach, train, celebrate and pray for each other so that each feels fully supported to animate their own places.

Click here or use the button below to apply to join a Learning Cohort. Please have each interested individual in your church apply separately.

The program includes two in-person workshops, weekly 90-minute virtual meetings, and engaging in mini-experiments as we work with the Holy Spirit to weave together the tapestries of our places and all life that lives there. The weekly commitment is about 5 hours per week.

This program is great for individuals and small groups who are passionate about finding God already at work in their neighbors and would like to gain resources and peer-support through their journey. 

FAN asks churches to send 3-5 individuals from the congregation who are passionate about intentional, hyperlocal neighboring and can embrace the high commitment and accountability this cohort requires over 14 weeks.

They also ask that churches be ready to bless, commission, and celebrate specific church members to participate as Animators in our program, and to form an “accountability team” that cheers them on and gives them plenty of grace throughout their journey!

This opportunity comes at no cost to churches. The Neighboring Movement believes that by paying Animators through grants, they can resource them to have a long-term impact on the congregation and church culture as a whole, while establishing a missional and incarnational presence on their blocks that has ripple effects far beyond the church walls.

Animators will live out the Key Ingredients of Neighboring in their immediate neighborhoods:

  • Joy — Living authentically as God created you
  • Relationship — Connecting with others to give and receive care
  • Abundance — Discovering, connecting, and mobilizing the God-given gifts latent in all neighbors towards the common dreams of the neighborhood

By the end of the Learning Cohort, Animators know how to:

  • Engage in learning conversations
  • Discover and activate individual capacities
  • Be a connector
  • Build an asset map
  • Celebrate community engagement

Animators who complete a Learning Cohort are eligible to move into the second phase of FAN, Community Building Cohort, which allows Animators to dive deep into their learnings from phase 1 and create a community project of their choice. Time commitment is 5 hours per week at a $15 hourly rate. 

* To see last year’s schedule for the Phase 1 learning cohort, click here. Some activities and initiatives will be condensed, removed, replaced due to limited time, but you can get the gist.

Questions: Ian Campbell, Program Director

Apply Now

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

View slides from our recent presentation about this opportunity here.

View the webinar about this opportunity at top of this page or here.

Podcast episode 9: Matt All

Posted on by Nancy McCready

Welcome to the Pioneers in Health podcast.

Here, we share inspiring stories of pioneering leaders working to improve health. We bring you guests from our state, from our nation and from your backyard to tell their stories of how they broke new ground and changed the landscape of health care. 

In episode nine, we interview Matt All.

Matt is the president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBSKS), the state’s largest and only locally owned health insurance provider. As a mutually owned, not-for-profit health plan, BCBSKS serves nearly one million members with the state’s largest provider network.

In his role, he is working to make BCBSKS a vibrant, robust, progressive force for good in Kansas. He is committed to giving Kansans a better, more humane experience in the health care system, and to making high-quality care accessible and affordable in every Kansas community.

Some of Matt’s most significant accomplishments include the implementation and preparation of the Affordable Care Act. He also led the company’s Health Care Reform Guidance Team and represented the company on the national Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s Health Care Reform Implementation Task Force. Most recently, he led the company and its members through navigating the health care system during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this episode, Matt discusses a variety of challenges facing the current health system and how his team is working to address them.

“It just should not be the case in the United States of America, the richest country in the world, in 2024, that there are such deep inequities, especially when it comes to things like maternal health,” he said.

Matt also discussed artificial intelligence and its emerging role in health care. He said AI is a valuable tool but that he’s concerned about how quickly it’s evolving and wants to make sure it does more good than harm.

“It’s a wonderful invention, and it’s progressing incredibly rapidly,” he said. “But it needs to be used to help people live healthier lives, and so having a human in there making decisions with a good kind of ethical backbone I think is going to be important as we move forward.”

Other topics discussed include:

  • His journey from a small town in Kansas to Yale Law School to health care
  • The challenge of affordability in health care
  • How BCBSKS works to address the social determinants of health, including Pathways to a Healthy Kansas, a community grant initiative funded by BCBS
  • The goal to establish BCBSKS as a leader in behavioral health
  • Strengthening health care access in rural communities
  • Medicaid expansion
  • Telehealth

And much more! Listen now, and learn more about Matt’s efforts and how he is a pioneering leader in health care.

Listen now

Listen below or on any of your favorite podcast services. Like and subscribe to stay up-to-date with each new episode!

Episode 9 features Matt All, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas

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Please see the Pioneers in Health page on our website for more information on our podcast series and links to other episodes.  

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Thriving Children Research Series

Posted on by Nancy McCready

Join us as we discuss new research that impacts the field of early childhood education and development.

View details about this educational series below.

Questions or have troubles registering? Contact us here.

JUST ADDED!
Webinar: “Access to Maternity Care in Kansas”
11-12 p.m. Thursday, June 12, 2025

The growing maternal-care desert in Kansas is causing more women in the state to drive long distances for care, with 59% not having any local access to inpatient maternity services.

The KU School of Nursing recently released a report detailing the availability of maternity care across Kansas. The report, “Access to Maternity Care in Kansas,” was produced in collaboration with the Kansas Center for Rural Health with funding from the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund.

Over the last 10 years, many rural hospitals across the country have closed or have stopped offering maternity care services altogether. This includes in Kansas, which is second only to Texas in terms of the number of counties considered rural. Rural hospitals are at an increased risk of closure due to declining occupancy rates, high fixed costs and market pressures.

Access to quality perinatal care, which includes care during pregnancy and after the birth, is critical to the health of newborn babies and their mothers. Closures of hospitals and cessation of maternity services are correlated with more babies being born early, more infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units and more women dying during pregnancy or in childbirth.

The report outlines, by county and ZIP code when possible, the numbers of women of reproductive age in the area, the facilities offering prenatal care or inpatient maternity care; the availability of referral and high-risk services; and the providers accepting patients and offering prenatal or full perinatal services, nursing, anesthesia, behavioral health, lactation, and doula support services. It also provides the distances to facilities with delivery capabilities.

Learn more about the findings from this report during a special webinar from 11-12 p.m. Thursday, June 12, via Zoom. Speakers will include the report’s lead author, Karen Weis, Ph.D., FAAN, dean of KU School of Nursing-Salina, followed by a panel discussion with maternal and rural health experts.

Register Now

Kansas Child Care Subsidies: Perceptions from Providers
10-11 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024

View full report

The Kansas Department for Children and Families’ child care subsidy program is one of the most important tools used to address child care affordability in the state.

However, just 12% of eligible families are participating in the program. Family participation in the program is tied to provider availability and provider participation in the program.

To gain insight as to why providers participate or not, the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund partnered with Kansas State University to survey Kansas child care providers to better understand their perception and experience with DCF’s child care subsidy program.

Join this webinar to discuss key findings from this important survey, “Child Care Providers: Perception of Child Care Subsidies in Kansas.”

View Webinar Recording & Report

Leveraging the CCBHC Model to Enhance Childhood Mental Health
1-2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024

The years from birth to age five are critical for a child’s development, with rapid brain growth and increased neural connections laying the groundwork for cognitive, emotional and social skills that last into adulthood.

View issue brief

In Kansas, there has been progress in recognizing the importance of infant and early childhood mental health and expanding access to services for young children and their families.

However, challenges remain.

The Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model presents a framework to address these gaps — emphasizing comprehensive, person-centered care through strategic partnerships, workforce development and targeted interventions.

Kansas has an opportunity to strengthen its system for delivering infant and early childhood mental health services, leveraging the model’s services and payment structure to ensure that all children and families can benefit from timely and effective support.

The Health Fund recently partnered with the Kansas Health Institute to research this opportunity. Learn more about this during our upcoming webinar, “Leveraging the CCBHC Model to Enhance Childhood Mental Health.”

View Webinar Recording & Issue Brief

ABC Parent-Coaching Program: Promising Insights
1-2 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024

Social-emotional development in young children is a critical factor related to later-life outcomes, such as school success, social interactions and mental health.

A growing body of research demonstrates that investing in science-based, short-term early interventions pays off over both the short and long term, delivering lasting results that not only change lives for the better but also produce substantial returns on that investment.

View full report

The Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) program is an evidence-based, home visiting intervention for caregivers of infants and toddlers who have experienced early adversity. It is designed to buffer the harmful effects of toxic stress and help support normal early childhood development.

To explore the effectiveness of ABC with Kansas families, the KU School of Social Welfare (supported by multiple Kansas philanthropies, including the Health Fund) worked with several early childhood and mental health organizations across the state to research this program.

Now, seven years later, the Kansas ABC Early Childhood Initiative has concluded.

This webinar discussed the promising results from Phase II of this project, which continued researching the program’s effectiveness with infants and expanded to include toddlers with their caregivers.

View Webinar Recording & Report

The registration form is now closed – thank you for your interest. Please contact David Jordan david@healthfund.org for waiting list or future events.

Stay tuned, as we will be adding additional webinars to this series! Subscribe to our emails or follow us on social media to find out the latest topics added.

Kansas mothers and babies win with recent Medicaid changes

Posted on by Nancy McCready

Kansas mothers and babies will receive better access to maternal health care support, thanks to recent changes to the state’s Medicaid program.  

Changes that will recognize and reimburse doulas, as well as better reimburse lactation consultants, will benefit Kansas families.

Medicaid coverage, reimbursement rates and recognition of providers all directly impact the availability and quality of health care Medicaid recipients can receive.

This is why the Health Fund advocates so strongly to: strengthen coverage, ensure reimbursement rates can sustain services, and expand care teams to include culturally competent providers.

We are encouraged by recent improvements to Kansas’ Medicaid program, known as KanCare, that will benefit our state’s mothers and babies.  

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment added doula services to KanCare’s coverage this summer. Now, doulas can provide crucial support during pregnancy, labor, delivery and postpartum under Medicaid, receiving reimbursement for up to $1,295 per delivery.

According to the National Institutes of Health, moms who use doulas are two times less likely to experience birth complications and four times less likely to give birth to an underweight baby.

The effort to add, recognize and reimburse doulas was led by Health Fund grantees Kansas Birth Justice Society and Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition. Beyond supporting these organizations and other partners, we advocated for this policy change because we believe it will improve maternal health outcomes in our state.

Doulas serve as advocates and educators for pregnant women and new mothers. They can help women experience a positive and safe birth, staying by their side during delivery and providing pain-relief measures like breathing techniques and laboring positions.

Doulas may also help new mothers begin breastfeeding and encourage bonding with the baby.

They also can maintain more frequent contact with patients than physicians often can. They can provide home visits and serve as a resource to answer questions about what’s normal and when it’s time to see a doctor. They can help bridge the gap between limited, overloaded physicians and their patients.

“Increasing KanCare’s coverage to include doulas is a huge win – especially for our state’s rural communities, who are increasingly losing obstetric-care services.”

— Health Fund

More than ever, we need innovative ways to provide maternal health care to these rural mothers, and we see doulas as a part of that solution. We look forward to seeing doulas continue to play a vital and growing role in the health of Kansas women and their babies.

We’re also celebrating KanCare’s decision in the last year to increase reimbursement rates and coverage options for lactation services. This was another huge win for Kansas mothers and their families.

The Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition, with funding support from the Health Fund, worked with the Kansas Division of Health Care Finance to increase reimbursement rates for lactation consultation services from $10 to $40 per visit in late 2023. This move helps ensure moms can receive breastfeeding support when they need it. It also helps alleviate financial hardship to the hospitals and local health departments providing the service.

Lactation support has been shown to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration rates. Breastfeeding provides numerous health benefits to babies and their mothers, as well as facilitates emotional bonding between the two.

As part of this advocacy effort, a statewide workgroup was formed. They paid special focus to rural communities while discussing ways to increase access to lactation services across the state, including telehealth appointments for lactation consultations.

This is another win for Kansas families, making these important consultations even more accessible to mothers who are facing breastfeeding challenges.

For more than a decade, the Health Fund has been a steadfast advocate and financial supporter of breastfeeding initiatives. We are immensely proud to have supported these vital efforts, which promote the health and well-being of mothers and babies alike.

OTHER RECENT MEDICIAD ADVANCEMENTS:

In addition to these wins, we’re also celebrating other recent KanCare improvements we supported through both funding and advocacy:

Podcast Episode 8: Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas

Posted on by Nancy McCready

Welcome to the Pioneers in Health podcast.

Here, we share inspiring stories of pioneering leaders working to improve health. We bring you guests from our state, from our nation and from your backyard to tell their stories of how they broke new ground and changed the landscape of health care. 

In episode eight, we interview Krista Postai and Jason Wesco, of the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas (CHK/SEK) based in Pittsburg, Kansas. Krista serves as CEO, and Jason serves as President and Chief Strategy Officer.

These two innovative leaders have worked to improve the health of individuals and communities in southeast Kansas for more than 20 years. Their work has not only addressed primary, behavioral and oral health care, but it’s also addressed the social factors that make a greater impact on health than what happens in the doctor’s office.

In this episode, they discuss how they evolved from providing services out of a trailer to now serving more than 80,000 patients this year and employing more than 1,000 with multiple sites in multiple states.

During the last five years, they said much growth has been from preserving access to health care where other health systems have left rural communities.

“We believe rural communities matter, and that means you step up and do some hard things when you need to,” Jason said. “And we believe we can improve health in our part of the world.”

They also discuss:

  • Their approach to providing quality, compassionate care for all and removing barriers to care, such as transportation
  • Developing residency programs for family medicine doctors, dentists and nurse practioners with the intention to cultivate a new generation of health care professionals dedicated to serving rural communities
  • Expanding services to meet specific needs, such as mammography
  • Creating a new, comprehensive hospice program, Mount Carmel Hospice, after a local hospice service closed
  • Developing an education center and the Inspire Health Foundation, which provides hands-on learning to K-12 students through camps and activities aimed at sparking an interest in a health care career

And so much more! Listen now, and learn more about how Krista and Jason are true pioneering leaders in health care.

Listen now

Listen below or on any of your favorite podcast services. Like and subscribe to stay up-to-date with each new episode!

Episode 8 features Krista Postai & Jason Wesco, Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas

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Please see the Pioneers in Health page on our website for more information on our podcast series and links to other episodes.  

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Grantees in the News

Posted on by Nancy McCready
Kansas Cares logo

Thrive Allen County awarded $11.9 million to help Kansans enroll in health coverage

Thrive Allen County will continue to help underserved communities, consumers and small businesses find and enroll in affordable health care coverage thanks to a recent $11.9-million federal grant.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is awarding the grant in advance of this year’s Nov. 1 open enrollment date for the Health Insurance Marketplace, or HealthCare.gov. Grants were awarded to 44 Navigator programs across the nation.

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund provided funding support to help Thrive Allen County apply for the federal grant. Thrive Allen County is a non-profit organization that exists to strengthen Kansas’ rural communities through advocacy, programs, community outreach and communication. 

Thrive Allen County’s Navigator program, called Kansas CARES, works with partners across the state to provide free assistance to people exploring health care coverage through HealthCare.gov. The five-year, $11.9-million grant will help them continue providing this important service.

Navigators are federally trained, vetted and certified individuals who help consumers find and apply for Marketplace health insurance. They help with everything from reviewing available plans to assisting with eligibility and enrollment forms to providing post-enrollment services, such as using coverage to get care.

Navigators also can assist people with enrolling in or renewing coverage through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

“As trusted community partners, their mission focuses on assisting the uninsured and other underserved communities. Navigators serve an important role in connecting communities that historically have experienced lower access to health coverage and greater disparities in health outcomes to health coverage,” according to CMS.

Visit KansasCARES.org for more information or to find a Navigator near you.

To learn more about this year’s Navigator grantees, visit In-Person Assistance in the Health Insurance Marketplaces | CMS. Consumers in any state can access Navigators by visiting Find Local Help for assistance with their application and more. For additional details on Marketplace Open Enrollment, which will run from Nov. 1 to at least Jan. 15, 2025 (and longer in some states), visit HealthCare.gov.

Board welcomes new members

Posted on by Nancy McCready

The Health Fund’s Board of Directors welcomed two new members at its meeting this week.

Tanner Wealand and Robert J. Morris both joined the board this summer and participated in their first official board meeting this week.

Tanner serves as President and CEO/CFO at McPherson Hospital in McPherson, Kansas.

Robert serves as Senior Vice President and Institutional Consultant at Graystone Consulting in Wichita, Kansas. He also has served on the Health Fund’s Investment Committee.

We are excited to have them join the Board of Directors and look forward to them helping us further our mission of improving the health of all Kansans.

Welcome to the board, Tanner and Robert!

Team updates

Posted on by Nancy McCready

The Health Fund is thrilled to announce the promotions of three long-time team members and the addition of one new member.

We are grateful for the years of service and the talents these team members provide to our organization. Their contributions are invaluable.

We are excited about the growth within our team, and together, we look forward to continuing our mission of serving Kansas families and helping improve the health of all Kansans.

PROMOTIONS

Katie Schoenhoff was promoted to Vice President of Programs. Katie has worked here for nearly 11 years, and the title change reflects her role overseeing the foundation’s programming efforts.

Jeff Gamber was promoted to Director of Operations. Jeff has worked at the Health Fund for nearly 25 years and will see an expanded role in overseeing business, facility and technology operations in his new position.

Dashinika Poindexter was promoted to Congregational and Grants Management Officer. Dashinika, who just celebrated her five-year anniversary with us, will now oversee our Healthy Congregations efforts and play a greater role in providing technical assistance to grantees.

NEW HIRE

Nancy McCready joined the Health Fund this summer and will oversee our communications efforts. She brings a wealth of communications, marketing and journalism experience to the role. She began her career as a reporter for The Hutchinson News and later moved into communications and marketing roles. She has worked in a variety of different industries, including heath care technology, higher education and multi-family housing.

Pioneers in Health: Brock Slabach

Posted on by Nancy McCready

Welcome to the Pioneers in Health podcast.

Here, we share inspiring stories of pioneering leaders working to improve health. We bring you guests from our state, from our nation and from your backyard to tell their stories of how they broke new ground and changed the landscape of health care. 

In episode seven, we interview Brock Slabach, the Chief Operating Officer at the National Rural Health Association (NRHA). The NRHA is a national nonprofit that brings together thousands of members to provide leadership on rural health issues through advocacy, communications, education and research.

Brock grew up in rural Kansas and worked as a rural hospital administrator for more than 20 years before joining the NRHA. He is an expert on rural health, payment and delivery reform, and improving access to health care.

Brock Slabach, chief operating officer of the NHRA, speaks on the Pioneers in Health podcast with the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund

In this episode, he discusses the future of rural health care, including:

And more! Listen now, and learn more how Brock and the NRHA are pioneering leaders in health care.

Listen now

Listen below or on any of your favorite podcast services. Like and subscribe to stay up-to-date with each new episode!

Episode 7 features Brock Slabach, COO of the National Rural Health Association

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Please see the Pioneers in Health page on our website for more information on our podcast series and links to other episodes.  

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