Category: Uncategorized

HUTCHINSON, KS — What began as a $30 million endowment has grown into an $80 million investment into improving the health and wholeness of all Kansans.

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund was formed in 1986 after the sale of Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, which was a nonprofit hospital affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

Upon being sold to the for-profit Hospital Corporation of America, the church’s Kansas West Conference (now the Great Plains Conference) used $30 million of the proceeds to create the Health Fund with the strategic purpose of advancing health, healing and wholeness in Kansas.

Nearly 40 years later, the Health Fund continues that mission.

And, this spring, the Health Fund celebrated a significant milestone — surpassing $80 million in grants awarded to help make a difference in the lives of Kansans.

“It’s deeply rewarding to see how much impact our organization has made over the course of its history,” Health Fund President and CEO David Jordan said. “We see more than the amount we’ve invested; we see the lives and systems we’ve been able to affect through advocacy and partnership through our grantmaking. Most importantly, we’re excited about how we can continue to partner with grantees and Kansans to improve the health of Kansans for years to come.”

Some grants this past year that helped push the organization over the $80 million mark included:

• Funding to help the Kansas Birth Justice Society train 200 new doulas to help improve the health outcomes of babies and mothers across Kansas
• Two pilot sites for an extensive pilot project to evaluate the effectiveness of community paramedicine and mobile integrated health
• Research that will help drive conversation on ways to better improve the child care subsidy system in Kansas
• Research to better understand the growing lack of access to maternal health care to help drive conversation and solutions
• Investments in parent-coaching methods, including:
  • Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up program, which focuses on fostering health relationships between caregivers and their children with the goal of building secure attachment, reducing stress and improving pre-school readiness for toddlers
  • Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), which is an evidence-based treatment that aims to promote healthy child development and help improve the parent-child relationship through interaction. PCIT is beneficial for children with behavioral issues as it can help reduce these problems.
• Investments to help expand access to mental-health services for school-aged children, as well as infant and early childhood
• And many more!

“We can’t impact change alone. We are grateful to all our partners who’ve used their grant funding to improve the health and lives of Kansans,” Vice President of Programs Katie Schoenhoff said. “Your efforts will create positive change for generations to come.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
David Jordan, president and CEO, United Methodist Health Ministry Fund
508-246-6825 | david@healthfund.org

Brenda Sharpe, president and CEO, REACH Healthcare Foundation
913-322-6025 |  brenda@reachhealth.org

New report: Kansas to lose $3.897 billion in Medicaid funding under Senate-approved ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ thousands still to lose coverage insurance

HUTCHINSON, KS – Kansas stands to lose $3.897 billion in federal and state Medicaid funding under the Senate-approved version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which will result in Kansas hospitals losing $2.65 billion in funding over 10 years.

Under the Senate plan, 13,000 Kansans are still projected to lose access to Medicaid for health insurance. Such losses would lead to higher uninsured rates and create more financial struggles for rural hospitals already on the brink of closure.

The Senate-approved bill includes more than $1.2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid when taking into account federal and state funding losses due to changes incorporated into the bill.

The Senate did include a $50 billion rural hospital relief fund to help offset funding losses, which would provide $811 million to Kansas hospitals. However, that still leaves hospitals billions short in Medicaid funding.

“We appreciate efforts to help our rural hospitals. However, it’s not enough,” said David Jordan, president and CEO of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund. “It’s not a viable long-term solution. Our hospitals cannot afford to absorb billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts without cutting services and or possibly closing their doors. Our rural communities are aging and will only need more health care in the coming years – not less. This isn’t a sustainable solution to offsetting these losses, which will exacerbate the struggles our rural hospitals face.”

These results were recently released by Manatt Health, which conducted the analysis at the request of Kansas health philanthropies United Methodist Health Ministry Fund and REACH Healthcare Foundation. The two organizations wanted to better understand the financial and enrollment impacts of the latest bill, which implement deep cuts to Medicaid on top of reducing $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Medicaid, the public health insurance program that covers more than 366,000 Kansans, is funded jointly by the state and federal government. It provides health insurance for low-income parents, children, seniors and people with disabilities. Adults who do not have children do not qualify for Medicaid in Kansas.

The Senate proposal will have a direct and disproportionate impact on rural communities, where higher rates of residents rely on Medicaid for health insurance. In Kansas, more than half of rural hospitals are already at risk of closure. According to Manatt’s model, Kansas hospitals would lose $1.608 billion in federal Medicaid funding alone over 10 years, in addition to another $1.042 in state Medicaid funding for a combined $2.65 billion in lost funding.

Kansas already has more hospitals at risk of closure than any other state in the country. Sixty-three rural hospitals are currently at risk, and 87% of Kansas rural hospitals are operating in the red. These hospitals struggle to survive with existing federal funding. Provisions in the bill would cause them to lose billions, making it even harder to stay open. When rural hospitals close, it removes job opportunities in addition to access to health care, creating a ripple effect in small communities.

“This bill is a serious threat to the health and well-being of thousands of Kansans,” said Brenda Sharpe, president and CEO of REACH Healthcare Foundation. “Cutting Medicaid funding and SNAP would weaken the safety net that holds our communities together, especially in rural communities where health care options are already limited. This would move us further from a future where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. We strongly urge the House to consider the long-term consequences of this bill and vote to protect the programs that sustain our communities.”

Manatt said these estimates are understated due to a lack of publicly available data. In addition, the model did not speculate how Kansas would respond if it were faced with steep losses in funding. Without an investment of new state dollars, the state may have to constrain base payments to providers, eliminate or narrow eligibility and benefits. Coverage losses due to the bill’s changes to the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace also couldn’t be modeled; however, they will result in additional Kansans losing health insurance.

“This bill makes sweeping changes to programs that help Kansas families access health care and put food on their tables,” Jordan said. “If approved, these changes will be devastating for Kansas families.”

RELATED COVERAGE:
Emporia Gazette: Local healthcare providers brace for impact of ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’
Fox4 Kansas City: Kansas to lose nearly $4 billion in Medicaid funding under Trump’s bill
KAKE: Kansas non-profits raise concern over proposed cuts in President Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’
Kansas Reflector: Kansans lament passage of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
Salina Post: Report: Kansas to lose $3.897 billion in Medicaid funding under ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’
KSN-TV: Kansas to lose nearly $4 billion in Medicaid funding under Trump’s bill: report
KCUR: Sen. Moran says he protected funding for Kansas hospitals. Health care advocates disagree
Kansas Public Radio: Report: Kansas to Lose $3.9 Billion in Medicaid Funding

PREVIOUS MODELING:
Senate-proposed bill before approval
House-approved bill
Initial analysis pre-bill

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About the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund and REACH Healthcare Foundation

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund (Health Fund) is a statewide health foundation working to improve the health of all Kansans since 1986 by funding innovative ideas, sparking conversations and convening those who can make a difference. Learn more at www.HealthFund.org

REACH Healthcare Foundation is a charitable foundation dedicated to improving health coverage and access to quality, affordable healthcare for uninsured and medically underserved people. The foundation focuses its support in a six-county service area that encompasses Allen, Johnson, and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and Cass Jackson and Lafayette counties in Missouri, as well as the City of Kansas City, Missouri.  Learn more about the foundation at www.reachhealth.org.

About Manatt Health

Manatt Health is a leading professional services firm specializing in health policy, healthcare transformation, and Medicaid redesign. Their modeling draws upon publicly available state data including Medicaid financial management report data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, enrollment and expenditure data from the Medicaid Budget and Expenditure System, and data from the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission. The Manatt Health Model is tailored specifically to Kansas.

Welcome to the Pioneers in Health podcast. In this podcast, we share inspiring stories of pioneering leaders from our nation and from your backyard who are working to improve health.

She shares how she became interested in social justice, which began at a young age over a kitchen table with her grandmother. Her grandmother, a chemical engineer by trade, would have Audé read the newspaper while she cooked breakfast for her. Then they would discuss the stories she had read, which humanized the news for her.

“I realized very quickly that everyday people are making a positive difference, and I wanted to be one of those people,” she said. “Regardless of what my career ended up being, I wanted to be one of those players I was reading about, because not all of them were doing it as a career, but they were all having an influence.”

Audé said her grandmother volunteered in the community and worked to create positive change.

“She was really one of the catalysts that inspired me to do more — especially as a woman,” she said.

Audé also shares about her involvement to help get the Maryland Dream Act, an experience that made her fall in love with nonpartisan community organizing. Before that act passed, high school students who were undocumented were unable to attend college.

As part of her community organizing efforts before the bill was passed, she was traveling to high schools and speaking with students impacted by the previous law. She met many students who were smart and motivated but couldn’t pursue their education because of their citizenship status. She worked with those students to write and share their stories with their elected officials so they could better understand the immigrant experience.

“It was really wonderful to not only see the bright futures change the law that would impact them the next year but also to see our elected officials have a better understanding of how policies were impacting their constituents without them knowing,” Audé said.

She discusses other aspects of her career before co-founding the Kansas Latino Community Network in 2023. After working in community organizing for many years throughout the state, she decided to take action and help launch an organization that could help fill gaps and address challenges within the Kansas Latino community.

They’ve since grown to three full-time employees, in addition to seasonal and contract workers throughout the year.

She shares more about her organization’s efforts, including voter engagement efforts. She said communities that are civically engaged and have leadership opportunities have better health outcomes. She highlighted an example of how communities with less civic engagement have fewer crosswalks, which impacts health, as crosswalks are needed to ensure people can exercise and remain safe.

She said one of the biggest barriers the Latino community faces is being involved in civic engagement spaces.

“Oftentimes when I talk about civic engagement in politics, people think about these national debates that are really angry and controversial,” Audé said. “When in reality, civic engagement is helping our neighbors. It’s being a community. It’s local.”

She also discusses:

• Her experience leading the Kansas Hispanic and Latino Affairs Committee, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and how their efforts led to higher rates of Latinos getting vaccinated
• Challenges in the Latino community
• The importance of civic engagement and how that leads to healthier communities
• KLCN’s focus on connecting with Latinos across the state and communicating in both Spanish and English
• Her passion for leadership development and nonpartisan voter engagement
• How Latinos in Kansas register at higher rates to vote than other groups; however, they vote at lower rates, because they aren’t fully informed on how to cast their vote; she shares about KLCN’s non-partisan efforts to communicate to the Latino community about how to cast their vote, such as where to find their polling location
• Success stories of mobilizers, including a high school student who helped get 79% of his low-propensity contacts to the polls last year
• Her vision for KLCN and how their vision is tied to health equity

 And much more! Listen now, and learn more about how Audé has been an innovative leader in Kansas.

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