Approved: January 31, 2006
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Jim Morrison at 1:30 p.m. on January 30, 2006, in Room 526-S of the Capitol.
All members were present except Representatives Kelley, Holland, Garcia, Kiegerl, and Bethell, all of whom were excused.
Committee staff present:
Conferees appearing before the committee:
Terri Roberts, Executive Director, Kansas State Nurses
Association
Jerry Slaughter, Executive Director, Kansas Medical Society
Teresa Schwab, Executive Director, Oral Health Kansas
Kevin Robertson, Executive Director, Kansas Dental
Association
Others attending:
See attached list.
The Minutes for 1-26-2006 were approved.
Terri Roberts, Executive Director, Kansas State Nurses Association, and
Jerry Slaughter, Executive Director, Kansas Medical Society, reported on their
joint meeting with their members to explore areas of common ground regarding
HB 2256.
They noted that the Board of Healing Arts had also held separate but parallel
hearings regarding the issues raised by the bill. Both Mr. Slaughter and Ms.
Roberts agreed that they expected their own discussions to be productive as they
sought what would be best for patient care, further stating that they would
continue to report their progress to the committee. The Chair reminded them
that February 22 was the last day for committees to meet.
Teresa Schwab, Executive Director, Oral Health Kansas, testified regarding a
collaboration of dental stakeholders that resulted in a unified effort to impact
the state of oral health in Kansas. (Attachment
1) She said that beginning in 2002, a coalition organized to improve
oral health and access to dental care in Kansas; the newly formed group
identified five areas of need: prevention, access to care, oral health status,
leadership, and workforce. She said the organization, now 130-members strong,
has developed three goals: increase the supply of dentists, especially in
low-income and rural areas; increase the supply of oral health care services;
and improve data, monitoring, and reporting. She noted two workforce
strategies: assisting in promoting extended care permits; and, since Kansas has
no dental school, creating an Advanced Education General Dentistry Residency
program, a Kansas clinical training program for dentists funded by a
public-private partnership. Answering questions, she said her hope is that the
residency clinic will prompt dentists to serve rural areas of Kansas. She
replied to another question that she had no data regarding the productivity cost
of poor oral health. She said the planned residency program is similar to that
used in 15 other states which did not partner with a dental school or rely on a
military base. She stated that the residency program would be accredited
through the American Dental Association. A number of committee members
expressed their support for the project, and Representative Goico offered to
develop a resolution to reflect that support. Answering more questions, Ms.
Schwab said currently all Kansas dental allotments to the University of
Missouri-Kansas City for Kansas residents (22) are taken.
Kevin Robertson, Executive Director, Kansas Dental Association, gave an update
on the Mission of Mercy, a weekend of free dental service which occurred in
Wichita the past weekend. He gave examples of the services provided, stating
that the project is funded through various foundation and organization grants;
he directed statistical queries to the Kansas Health Institute website. He
noted that methamphetamine users were especially prone to deleterious oral
health, and he announced that the next Mission of Mercy will occur in Topeka on
the first weekend of February 2007 at the Kansas Expocentre, further commenting
that five other states have similar missions each year.
Staff Melissa Calderwood provided a briefing on
HB 2660, which changes the
membership in the Behavioral Science Regulatory Board, increasing the number of
social workers from 2 to 6 and increasing the total board members from 11 to 15.
She noted that the governor will appoint additional members in two-year
intervals. She said that social workers represent about 66% of the members
licensed by the board.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:45 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for
Tuesday, January 31, in Room 526-S.