Dave Ranney
Senior Writer/Editor
Dave Ranney is a Senior Writer/Editor for KHI News Service.
Stories by Dave Ranney
Changes Ahead For Shawnee County Safety Net Clinics
The switch from county oversight to management by a Wichita-based nonprofit is under way for the four safety net clinics in Shawnee County. Together, the four clinics provide health services to about 8,000 patients a year, regardless of their ability to pay. That sounds like a lot. But for a county with 20,500 uninsured children…
Is Kansas’ Mental Health System Near Breaking Point?
The filing of a murder charge against a former patient at the Osawatomie State Hospital is prompting questions about the state’s mental health system. On May 14, Brandon Brown, 30, was released from a five-day stay at Osawatomie. He was sent to the state hospital after threatening other patients at the Haviland Care Center, a…
Kansas Insurance Department Predicts Jump In 2016 Premiums
The Kansas Insurance Department on Tuesday said that premiums for some individual and small-group health plans are likely to increase by as much as 38 percent for 2016.
How Kansas Welfare Restrictions Could Lead to More Kids in Foster Care
Less than three weeks after signing a bill that’s expected to drop 700 youngsters from the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday urged more Kansas families to open their homes to abused and neglected children.
Former Employee Of The Kansas Department Of Children And Families Files Whistleblower Lawsuit
A former child protection supervisor with the Kansas Department for Children and Families office in Winfield has filed a “whistleblower” lawsuit, accusing the agency of firing her for calling her supervisor’s attention to false reports filed by a social worker.
Igniting a conversation, on domestic violence
Last year, more than 25,000 women and children spent time in one of the 29 domestic violence shelters in Kansas. A few men did as well. Between 2009 and 2013, law enforcement officials in Kansas investigated nearly 96,000 reports of domestic violence, resulting in 68,000 arrests. “These are just the ones we know about,” said...
Here’s what Brownback’s budget plan could do to the Kansas safety net
Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan for plugging a $325 million-plus hole in the current fiscal year’s budget includes a $254,000 cut in state-funded grants for safety net clinics that provide care for the poor and uninsured.
Kansas mental health providers wary of effort to regulate drug use
The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services is attempting to head off opposition to a bill being crafted to allow the state to regulate the use of prescription mental health drugs.
Primary care docs in Kansas and Missouri face medicaid cuts
Starting this month primary care physicians in much of the country, including Kansas and Missouri, will be paid less for seeing Medicaid patients. The expiration of a federal incentive program in the Affordable Care Act is responsible for the reduction. Nationally, the average fee reduction is expected to be nearly 43 percent, according to a recent…
Kansas budget cuts affect Department for Children and Families
A spokesperson for the Kansas Department for Children and Families says the agency plans to heed Gov. Sam Brownback’s call for cutting $3.9 million from its fiscal year 2015 budget by delaying a planned upgrade of its computer system.