Category: Uncategorized

Phillips County Health Systems receives 2024 Janet Sevier Gilbreath Award

Posted on May 15, 2025May 15, 2025 by Nancy McCready

Pictured from left: Kelly Moffatt CHW-C, PCHS; *Jennifer Dodds, LBSW, PCHS;* *Lori Hartnett, Health Fund board chair; David Jordan, Health Fund president and CEO.*

HUTCHINSON, KS — The Health Fund honored Phillips County Health Systems with its 2024 Janet Sevier Gilbreath Special Project Recognition Award during a ceremony May 6 in Hutchinson, Kansas.

This annual award celebrates a standout project that received grant support during that year from the Health Fund.

Phillips County Health Systems (PCHS) was honored for its exemplary community health worker (CHW) program, which it began and has continued since 2021 with support from the Health Fund.

CHWs are trusted community members professionally trained to help people navigate the health care system. They also work with individuals to identify difficulties and develop plans to overcome challenges.

CHWs have extensive knowledge of community resources and services, so they can connect people to the medical and social services they need to improve their health outcomes. They often provide community outreach and education, informal counseling, social support and advocacy. As valued members of health care teams, CHWs enable medical providers to work at the top of their scopes of practice and ensure continuity of care.

PCHS’ program has built relationships with local pharmacies, the Health Department, the Area Agency on Aging, the Ministerial Alliance, Meals on Wheels, Home Health agencies and more. By building trust, the program has helped PCHS gain new patients as well as increase patient retention and satisfaction.

“As a CHW, I can go beyond the hospital walls and visit with patients in their safe spaces. Health care can be very intimidating to some, and the CHW is there to build the bridge between the patient and their best overall health and wellness. We not only address the issue at hand, we dive in to find out the why behind the illness. We can do this in hospitals, clinics, health departments and more,” said Kelly Moffatt, PCHS CHW.

The program got a client into a much-needed drug and alcohol program, helped another secure financial support for insulin, and found local businesses and volunteers to help an elderly woman pack and move to safer housing. In another success, a patient receiving help applying for Medicaid, food assistance, disability, prescription assistance, and energy assistance had a mammogram shortly before her insurance was cancelled. An urgent biopsy was recommended but declined due to cost. The CHW connected the patient to Early Detection Works, which expedited her Medicaid application and saw her through successful treatment for stage two breast cancer.

Katie Schoenhoff, Health Fund vice president of programs, said PCHS has demonstrated outstanding dedication in advancing the community health worker initiative. By broadening their care team and integrating social drivers of health into their approach, they are ensuring individuals receive the medical care, resources and support they need to improve their overall well-being.

“Their commitment to expanding the role of community health workers has not only enhanced access to essential care, but it has also strengthened the compassionate support available to residents,” Schoenhoff said. “We are proud to recognize their initiative and unwavering service to the community as a model for rural health excellence.”

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Report details access to maternity care in Kansas

Posted on May 9, 2025October 30, 2025 by Nancy McCready

The Health Fund commissioned a report by KU School of Nursing, who worked in collaboration with the Kansas Center for Rural Health, to conduct research on access to maternity care in Kansas. The report was released May 8, 2025. This story below announcing the report originally appeared on KU Medical Center’s website.

The Health Fund hosted a webinar June 12 to discuss the findings. Click here to view the recording and presentation.

Report describes the state’s maternity care desert and provides detailed information on the critical resources needed to ensure healthy mothers and babies

May 8, 2025 | Kristi Birch, KU Medical Center

Access to quality care during pregnancy and after birth, often difficult to access in rural areas, is critical to the health of newborn babies and their mothers.

The growing maternal-care desert in Kansas is causing more women in the state to drive long distances for care and 59% do not have local access to inpatient maternity services, according to a report released today by the University of Kansas School of Nursing.

The report, Access to Maternity Care in Kansas, was produced by KU School of Nursing in collaboration with the Kansas Center for Rural Health, and with funding from the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund. The report describes and defines issues surrounding the availability of maternity care in Kansas.

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.

“Kansas legislators, health care systems, foundations, professional organizations and educational institutions are all working hard to address the concerns of access to care and the health care workforce,” said Karen Weis, Ph.D., FAAN, dean of KU School of Nursing-Salina and lead author of the report. “Sound data is needed to support these efforts. The Access to Maternal Care in Kansas report is a first step in gathering that data in one central source.”

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.

Karen Weis, Ph.D., FAAN, dean of KU School of
Nursing-Salina

Key findings in the report, which is based on data from 2022-2024, include:

An increasing number of Kansans travel up to 60 miles for low-risk prenatal and postpartum and labor and delivery care, particularly in the central and southwest parts of the state.
Fifty-nine percent of Kansans do not have local access to inpatient maternity care.
The availability of services for women with high-risk pregnancies is extremely limited. Close to 30% of ZIP codes in Kansas are more than 100 miles away from tertiary, high-risk services.
Forty-two counties in Kansas are without any documented anesthesia providers, and most of those are on the western side of the state.

The report also found that the counties with the highest birth rates are the ones losing access to maternity care services. And rural counties had higher birth rates than urban ones: 67 versus 61 live births per 1,000 women of reproductive age.

“To me, the biggest surprise in the report are the two counties in western Kansas with the highest birth rates,” said Weis. Neither of these counties, Wallace and Grant, have a health care system offering maternity care. The distance to inpatient maternity care for those residing in each county is approximately 50 miles and 24 miles, respectively.

The report also provides information clarifying the unrecognized costs of providing maternal health care, which requires the presence of multidisciplinary teams of providers and nurses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The vast majority of rural hospitals are reimbursed through a Medicare-reimbursement model, which does not cover the high cost of providing maternity care.

“These data paint a stark picture of the current landscape of access to maternal health. The data also emphasize the critical importance of addressing this challenge before it gets worse, as well as recognizing that the location of services is one piece of the puzzle,” said David Jordan, MPA, president and chief executive officer of United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, which is based in Hutchinson, Kansas. “We need to figure out solutions to complete the puzzle in order to provide women, children and families across the state with better access to the services they need to thrive.”

View full research report

View research brief

Podcast episode 23: Brenda Sharpe

Posted on May 8, 2025May 8, 2025 by Nancy McCready

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.

In episode 23, we interview Brenda Sharpe, president and CEO, of REACH Healthcare Foundation. REACH is a charitable organization based in Overland Park, Kansas, that focuses on improving health coverage and access to quality, affordable care for uninsured and medically underserved communities. Brenda has overseen the organization since its inception more than 20 years ago.

In this episode, she discusses the evolution of her career and what led her to working for a mission-driven organization.

“I am not sure if my career chose me, or I chose my career,” she said. “I have always had a heart for service to other people, and I’ve only ever worked in the nonprofit sector.”

At REACH, her team focuses on a six-county service area in Kansas and Missouri. They provide grants to organizations and governmental agencies to advance REACH’s mission of health equity. She highlighted their efforts to help people enroll in publicly available health programs in order to reduce the number of uninsured residents.

She also discusses REACH’s commitment to racial equity. In 2019, they launched an initiative called Centering Black Voices to learn more about how they could better serve Black-and-Brown led and/or serving organizations. She shared lessons they’ve learned and changes they’ve made to their grantmaking processes as a result of this initiative.

She also discusses in depth the importance of Medicaid, which is a public health insurance program that provides the state’s lowest-income parents, children, seniors and people with disabilities health coverage. Congress is currently considering $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid in order to help fund more than $4 trillion in tax cuts sought by the presidential administration.

To better understand how such deep cuts could impact Kansas, she shared how REACH recently partnered with the Health Fund to commission a report that showed how four different legislative proposals could impact Kansas’ budget and enrollees.

The report and modeling, conducted by Manatt Health, showed the state would lose millions in the first year and billions over 10 years, as well as how thousands — including children — could lose their health insurance.

“I was so deeply alarmed when I heard about the proposed cuts that were starting to be discussed in Congress around Medicaid, as if it’s just some kind of a small, one-off program rife with abuse and fraud and doesn’t really have a lot of use in practical society, when absolutely the opposite is true,” Brenda said. “It’s such a critical program for Kansans.”

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE

The report highlights how the cuts could hurt Kansas hospitals, which already are struggling financially and rely on Medicaid reimbursement dollars to help keep their doors open. Kansas already has more hospitals at immediate risk of closure than any other state in the nation.

She said it’s important for state and federal lawmakers to understand what damage could happen to Kansas should these cuts get approved.

“They are getting ready to vote on something that is potentially going to do tremendous harm to their constituents and to their state,” Brenda said, “and they’re going to have to decide if funding tax cuts to the extent that’s being proposed is worth it to do that on the backs of their own constituents and hospitals and the health care system and safety net that we have in the state of Kansas.”

She also discusses:

The history and mission of REACH Healthcare Foundation

The importance of access to health insurance

The impact significant cuts to Medicaid could have on Kansas

How Medicaid cuts could impact hospitals

How budgets are impacted by Medicaid cuts and what may happen if cities decide to raise or use tax dollars to keep their local hospitals open

Access to health care, including mental health care, especially in rural Kansas

And much more! Listen now, and learn more about how Breanda is an innovative leader improving the health of Kansans.

Listen now

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Healthy Congregations makes updates to program

Posted on April 30, 2025May 1, 2025 by Nancy McCready

Healthy Congregations teams can now earn additional grant dollars with our newly updated program! Teams also can focus their time and resources on fewer projects to have greater impact.

We recently announced these changes at our annual Healthy Congregations retreat in April 2025.

Check out this video from our Vice President of Programs Katie Schoenhoff to learn more about these exciting updates.

Learn more about Healthy Congregations here. Have questions? Check out our commonly asked questions page or contact our team here.

Want to re-watch a specific part of the video? Here are some quick links to different topics in the presentation:

Changes in Healthy Congregations Grant Structure (1:00)

HC Program Simplifications / Improvements (3:41)

HC Annual Grant Requirements: Program Planning (5:56)

HC Annual Grant Requirements: Reflection, Sharing, Realignment (8:11)

HC Special Program Opportunities (10:34)

HC Staffing / Program Contact Changes (11:51)

HC Annual Grant Renewal Options (12:49)

HC Resources Overview – Healthfund.org Website (14:20)

HC Member Resources and Toolkit on Healthfund.org (17:00)

Report shows concerning projections on potential Medicaid funding cuts to KS

Posted on April 29, 2025June 25, 2025 by Nancy McCready

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 29, 2025

CONTACTS:
Brenda Sharpe President and CEO REACH Healthcare Foundation brenda@reachhealth.org	David Jordan President and CEO United Methodist Health Ministry Fund david@healthfund.org

Kansas health philanthropies release concerning projections on potential cuts to Medicaid funding

Hutchinson, Kan. — Medicaid serves as a crucial source of health insurance coverage for Kansas families, including children, parents, seniors, individuals with disabilities, those in need of behavioral health support, and residents of rural communities. Congressional lawmakers are currently considering $880 billion in cuts to the Medicaid program, which would reduce Medicaid funding and terminate coverage for vulnerable Kansans.

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund and REACH Healthcare Foundation recently partnered with experts from Manatt Health to shed light on the potential impacts of those cuts on Kansas over the next decade.

“Medicaid is the largest source of federal funds in Kansas and any cuts to the program will have severe economic and health impacts felt in every corner of the state,” said Brenda Sharpe, President and CEO of REACH Healthcare Foundation.

According to Manatt’s estimates, if Congress changed how Medicaid is funded (i.e., through a per capita cap) Kansas could see up to $347M in cuts in Medicaid funds in the first year enacted and $3.15 billion over ten years. As a result of the cuts, impacts to Kansans would likely include an increase in termination of coverage and benefits for vulnerable populations, rising personal medical debt, and the risk of more hospital closures across the state.

“The data is clear and deeply concerning. Kansas will lose billions of dollars in Medicaid funding if these proposed cuts are enacted, which will result in the termination of Kansans’ health care coverage and put more hospitals at risk of closure,” added David Jordan, President and CEO of United Methodist Health Ministry Fund. “We will all pay the price – higher costs, increases in local taxes, and less access to care – to offset these cuts. It’s critical that lawmakers, healthcare providers, advocates, and the people of Kansas recognize the consequences before it’s too late.”

Medicaid provides health care coverage for over 366,000 Kansans, including nearly 31% of all Kansas children. It also covers 4 in 7 nursing home residents, and 1 in 4 working-age adults with disabilities.

Beyond the overall reductions of Medicaid funding analyzed as part of the proposed cuts, Kansas hospitals could see their Medicaid funding reduced by 22% through changes to the Medicaid State Directed Payment program, and 5-15% of current Medicaid enrollees could lose coverage over ten years if work reporting requirements are implemented.

Manatt estimated the one-year and ten-year impacts of Congress’ proposed $880 billion in cuts to the federal Medicaid program, modeling the potential financial consequences for states. While Manatt’s estimates were developed before final legislative proposals are expected to be enacted by Summer 2025, they align closely with policy parameters, options and effective dates outlined by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and previously introduced legislative proposals.

The REACH Healthcare Foundation and the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund have prepared a brief summarizing key findings of the Manatt report, and Jordan and Sharpe say they will continue to closely monitor Congressional actions. As more specific policies are adopted, Manatt will update its estimates and also consider the interactive effects of those changes. These findings were shared during a press briefing April 29, which can be viewed here.

VIEW THE RESEARCH BRIEF

VIEW MANATT’S PRESENTATION

###

About REACH Healthcare Foundation and The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund

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.

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

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 and has been reviewed in consultation with key stakeholders including the Kansas Hospital Association.

Podcast episode 22: Ton Miras Neira

Posted on April 24, 2025April 24, 2025 by Nancy McCready

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.

In episode 22, we interview Ton Mirás Neira, community health worker project manager for the Communities Organizing to Promote Equity (COPE) project at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

He oversees 60 community health workers in 20 Kansas counties, concentrating on the social determinants of health. Community health workers are frontline public health workers who serve their fellow community members by helping them navigate and connect to the medical and social services they need.

In this episode, Ton discusses growing up in Spain and how he discovered a passion for helping others.

“I was a very, very curious kid,” he said. “My first intention was to be a veterinarian, and I learned everything about animals. But soon enough, like when I was a teenager, I knew that my heart was on helping people, so I did a lot of volunteering in the community.”

That passion drove him to complete a rigorous college program to become a sign language interpreter for the deaf-blind community, where he provided interpretation in a wide range of settings — from legal proceedings and workplace meetings to supporting mothers during labor and delivery. Ton shares how filling in for an interpreter for a couple of days ultimately led to him becoming an official government interpreter for the Spanish Parliament.

In 2012, he moved to the United States. He discusses learning about the U.S. health care system and finding a new career as a community worker.

Early in this new career, Ton was embedded in the emergency room at KU Medical Center to serve clients. There, he helped connect people with primary care physicians and navigate prescription coverage. Those efforts ultimately helped people receive better care and significantly reduced return visits to the ER.

In a six-month period, 85% of the people he worked with didn’t return to the ER. Of those who did return, there was a 75% reduction in hospital admissions and a 65% reduction in length of stay for those who were admitted. It was an eye-opening experience about the robust impact CHWs could make.

“I’m just grateful for everything that I’ve learned,” he said. “You know, working with the emergency room, I would never be here if I didn’t have all that experience.”

He shares his deep passion for the CHW profession and the fulfillment he finds in seeing how CHWs are making a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

“Seeing the smiles, seeing how they accomplished their goals, reading their success stories, I’m in heaven with that,” Ton said. “I feel really empowered by the CHWs that are working in the community.”

In this episode, she also discusses:

His entrance into the world of community health workers

How he’s been able to help his clients, as well as save the health system money, in his role

His work to help underserved communities in Kansas

Identifying barriers and navigating how community health workers can bridge cultural gaps between patients and medical providers

How CHWs can help address the social determinants of health

His role as past co-chair for the Kansas Community Health Worker Coalition and efforts to help the profession grow

The COPE program and how it tackles the social determinants of health in 20 Kansas counties using CHWs and other community partners

Creating a documentary called “Lifelines of Care: CHWs Making a Difference,” which shares the stories of three CHWs, highlighting the role and how they help improve lives in their communities

And much more! Listen now, and learn more about how Ton is an innovative leader improving the health of Kansans.

Listen now

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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.

View other episodes

Podcast episode 21: Julie Lorenz

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Nancy McCready

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.

In episode 21, we interview Julie Lorenz, principal consultant at 1898 & Co., the business and technology consulting arm of Burns & McDonnell. Burns & McDonnell provides solutions in architectural design, all engineering disciplines, project management and consulting. Julie is known as a national leader in policy development, collaboration and implementing vision initiatives. She also served as Kansas Department of Transportation secretary for four years before joining 1898 & Co.

In this episode, Julie discusses what led to her pursuing a career path in public service and transportation. She also shares an early lesson that set the stage for a lifetime of looking for solutions when challenges arise.

She discusses the role transportation plays in health. Transportation plays a significant role in the ability to transport medical supplies, for emergency vehicles to serve residents, and the ability for people to use bike trails and walking paths, which provide both physical and mental health benefits.

She also discussed how KDOT focuses a lot of effort on ensuring roads are safe for travelers so that they can continue living healthy lives.

Julie shares her experiences working in both the private and public sectors, and how her approach to problem solving has been beneficial in both.

While working for the state, they developed a process to better involve communities in decision making about transportation in their communities. They traveled the state listening to what needs communities voiced, as well as shared the needs of other communities. That process created more collaboration and understanding between communities to prioritize what would be best for a region or area — instead of everyone’s immediate individual requests.

This approach of collaboration to find solutions to challenges has carried with her throughout her career — both in the public and private sectors.

“It’s hard to solve problems if people don’t have a shared understanding of what the problem is, and they don’t understand their stake in the problem — and in the solution,” Julie said.

In this episode, she also discusses:

Legislative and state successes that have helped improve health, such as investments in broadband

Challenges the state faces with access to and storage of water

Her approach to problem solving

How the public and private sector can work together to plan for the future

The importance of using data in addition to empathy to help fuel conversations on issues

Kansas’ changing demographics and planning ahead for the future of the state’s service and infrastructure needs

And much more! Listen now, and learn more about how Julie is an innovative leader helping improve the health of Kansans.

Listen now

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

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

View other episodes

49 organizations urge Governor Kelly to protect Medicaid and veto proviso

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Nancy McCready

The Health Fund and 48 other state organizations sent a letter to Governor Kelly today urging her to protect Medicaid and veto the continuous eligibility proviso included in the state budget.

The proviso will force the state to pay an additional $3-4 million in administrative costs annually, add unnecessary red tape for providers and families, and terminate coverage for hardworking, low-income parents.

The current system is more effective, with parents and caregivers for children with incomes below 38% of the federal poverty level receiving 12-month continuous coverage through Medicaid. The proviso included in the budget would remove the 12-month continuous coverage for this group. More than 38,500 hardworking Kansans would be impacted by such a policy change.

This change will affect the most vulnerable Kansans who live well below the poverty line, making it more time consuming and burdensome. The constant dis-enrollment and re-enrollment of beneficiaries is burdensome for everyone and could prevent families from receiving the necessary care they need. The annual household income for a parent to qualify for this 12-month continuous coverage cannot exceed $11,856 for a family of four.

Ending this continuous coverage, which has been in place since 2010 in Kansas, will harm Kansas families. It will cause parents and their children to lose needed coverage, increase costs for the state, and reduce needed revenue for health care providers.

Signers of the letter include provider groups like Community Care Network of Kansas and the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas, advocacy groups like the Alliance for Healthy Kansas and Kansas Action for Children, patient groups like the American Heart Association and American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, and foundations like REACH Healthcare Foundation and the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund.

To view the full letter and signers, click here.

View Full Letter

Podcast episode 20: Kathleen Kelly Daughety

Posted on March 27, 2025March 27, 2025 by Nancy McCready

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.

In episode 20, we interview Kathleen Kelly Daughety, vice president of campaigns and civic engagement at Inseparable. Founded in 2020, Inseparable is a national mental health advocacy organization dedicated to increasing access to mental health care for everyone.

Kathleen has more than 15 years of experience in campaigns, strategic planning, project management and stakeholder engagement across the political, private and tech sectors. To Inseparable, Kathleen brings an undefeated electoral record; a keen interest in mental health, addiction abatement, and suicide prevention; and a commitment to making mental health an urgent priority for elected officials.

In this episode, she discusses her journey into politics and later mental health care advocacy. She shares her experience growing up in a Topeka neighborhood full of elected officials and public servants. Her state senator lived around the block, the state secretary of state down the street and Kathleen Sebelius right next door. Sebelius worked in the statehouse at the time and later went on to become Kansas governor and then the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

“Growing up next door to her really gave me a window into what it looks like to be involved and to run for office,” Kathleen said. “Without that in my life, my career would have been very different.”

She also grew up near Menninger’s, which was a premier institution for the treatment of mental health. It was based in Topeka for more than 75 years before it relocated to Houston. Many of her friends’ parents worked in mental health, so it was commonly discussed throughout her childhood at a time when that wasn’t common.

“The stigma was removed really early on in my life in a way that maybe was later for other parts of the country,” she said.

Because of growing up in Topeka, Kathleen also was exposed to the Westboro Baptist church, a nationally known hate group that staged public protests against gay people. That, she said, played a significant role in becoming politically active and participating in the gay rights movement at a young age.

After working in politics for years, she decided to make a change. She took other positions and even started her own company, but she missed the direct social impact of being involved in politics or advocacy.

She was trying to figure out her next steps when she experienced her own mental health crisis. That experience sparked a calling to work in the mental health field and eventually led to her position at Inseparable. Inseparable works to improve mental health policy at the federal and state levels.

“People shouldn’t have to decide between crushing medical debt and a crushing illness, and that’s what we’re forcing people to do, and it doesn’t need to be that way,” Kathleen said. “There are policies we can put in place to fix that.”

She discussed the critical role Medicaid plays in providing health insurance for people. One third of people with mental health needs are covered by Medicaid, she said. The more than $880 billion in federal cuts currently being discussed to Medicaid could have a devastating impact on people with mental health needs, as well as force rural hospitals to close due to receiving less financial reimbursement when they’re already struggling financially.

“If people have access to care and they have any mental health needs and it’s served, they can thrive. If they don’t have access to care, it devolves, and it’s really dangerous,” Kathleen said. “Having access to health care is incredibly important. That is sort of the key to when people talk about the mental health crisis, we’re actually talking about an access to care crisis, and we need to solve that.”

In this episode, she also discusses:

The prevalence of youth mental health concerns/challenges and the importance of access to care and treatment

Inseparable’s work to advance bills for school-based mental health care through Medicaid

The importance of having health insurance in order to access mental health care and the vital role Medicaid plays in that; Medicaid helps more people receive mental health care than any other insurance plan

How expanding Medicaid expands access to mental health care

The development of 988, the suicide and mental health crisis phone line

Crisis response and funding

How federal cuts to Medicaid would devastate mental health and hospitals

Technology and AI in health care

The hope she has for mental health care

How voters across party lines support mental health issues and Inseparable’s efforts to work with politicians to address mental health care

And much more! Listen now, and learn more about how Kathleen is an innovative leader in mental 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!

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

View other episodes

Podcast episode 19: Jim McLean

Posted on March 14, 2025March 14, 2025 by Nancy McCready

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.

In episode 19, we interview veteran journalist Jim McLean, senior reporter at Kansas News Service. Kansas News Service is a collaboration of public media stations across Kansas that report on issues and events affecting the health and well-being of Kansans, their communities and the state overall.

Jim was previously managing editor for the Kansas News Service, founder of KHI News Service covering health policy, and news director and Statehouse bureau chief for Kansas Public Radio. He was also managing editor for the Topeka Capital-Journal.

He has received numerous awards for journalistic excellence from the Kansas Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and Kansas Association of Broadcasters.

In this episode, he discusses how managing a supper club in the basement of a hotel led to a career in radio and journalism.

He also discusses the importance of public radio and how it’s evolved over the years. He shares stories from throughout his career and covering Kansas state government. He reflects on how the relationship with the media and public officials has changed, as well as the environment at the statehouse.

“There were partisan differences, but everybody was there essentially to do the public business. It wasn’t performance art like I think it is today,” he said. “People were respectful of one another. They had different opinions, but it was a constructive environment.”

He also discusses his experience working at the Kansas Health Institute (KHI), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that conducts research on health policy issues. While there, one of the most important things he learned about was the social determinants of health.

“So much more contributes to whether you’re a healthy person or not than just the health care that you receive,” he said. “In fact, on a percentage basis, that’s well down the line.”

While at KHI, he created and launched KHI News Service to focus on nonpartisan news coverage of health policy. That eventually split off from KHI and became housed at KCUR Public Media, where the team of reporters continues covering health policy and issues across the state.

In this episode, he also discusses:

His journey into broadcasting and later politics

How journalism and politics have changed during his career

Sharing stories of Kansans through his podcast series titled “My Fellow Kansans”

How getting stuck on ideological positions creates an inability to have constructive conversation on topics that affect everyone’s health, such as Medicaid

The role media plays in helping the public understand potential policy impacts and his hope of sustaining media outlets that have vigorous editorial processes

And much more! Listen now, and learn more about how Jim is an innovative leader in health care communications.

Listen now

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

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

View other episodes

Photo Gallery

Report describes the state’s maternity care desert and provides detailed information on the critical resources needed to ensure healthy mothers and babies

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Kansas health philanthropies release concerning projections on potential cuts to Medicaid funding

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