Health at the Capitol — 2026 Turnaround, episode 1

• Home
• Articles

Health at the Capitol - 2026 Turnaround, episode 1

Join us for Health at the Capitol - a Kansas Health Institute podcast and webcast focused on health-related policy discussions and action at the Kansas Legislature.

Summary:

Feb. 19 marked Turnaround Day for Kansas Legislators. In our latest Health at the Capitol podcast, the Kansas Health Institute legislative monitoring team discusses legislation that made it through, including bills related to cell phone use among Kansas students, child welfare legislation to promote the protection of Kansas kids and proposals to address other issues such as health care workforce, pharmaceuticals and controlled substances.

Watch the episode. Listen as a podcast.



Full Transcript

Voice over 0:00
Each legislative session KHI is hard at work, keeping you informed on the latest health policy discussions from across the street in downtown Topeka. Health at the Capitol is a KHI production, a monthly recap with our legislative monitoring team offering you a closer look at policy work happening now in Kansas and coming up.

Theresa Freed 0:25
Thanks for joining us for another edition of Health at the Capitol. I'm Theresa Freed, your host. I have with me, Linda and Val, who lead our legislative monitoring team. Today we're going to talk about all things, Turnaround Day and see what made it through and also what got held up. And then we'll also talk about some of our federal health policies that we're watching as well. So lots to discuss. Linda, so first off we're going to talk about what exactly Turnaround Day is. It was Feb. 19th. And what exactly does that mark?

Linda Sheppard 0:54
Yeah. So last Thursday, Feb. 19th is what was referred to as Turnaround Day. And basically what that means is that, any bills that are going to continue to, progress through the rest of the session have to have gotten through one, one chamber, so gotten through their committee where they probably started it off and then at least gotten, gotten passed by that to that particular chamber. And, so those bills go both ways, House and Senate, and they kind of switch. And then after Turnaround, they start working each other's bills. and switching around. So, that's the one way that that bills can stay active. The other way that bills can stay active is if they are in certain types of committees. So the federal and state committees, both on the House and Senate side, also the budget committees, both sides, and then tax and a few other kind of unusual committees and so, sometimes the legislators that they're not going to be able to get a bill all the way pass, they will, transfer it into one of those committees and that sort of gets saved, or blessed is the term that we use. So, anyway, those those bills are still there. And, when they, when they come back, so they're, they're off today. We're, we're recording this on, Feb. 23rd and they will be returning tomorrow. So they had a had a day off on Friday and, and it today long weekend and they'll be back tomorrow and start working each other's bills.

Theresa Freed 2:16
Alright. And Val, we were talking about this a little bit ago. You guys did a very good job of making some predictions about what was going to make it through. So, can you highlight some of those?

Valentina Blanchard 2:28
Yeah. So, one of the things that we knew that they were going to talk about was the cell phones in schools. I'm talking about, the mental health aspect. And, they did pass a bill, that would, require public and, accredited nonpublic schools, to implement a bell-to-bell policy. You know, there was some discussion on whether or not to include some of those private schools or not. Ultimately, they did include some of those, and then they'll also kind of be taking a look at, fiscally what that means for, for districts, because they'll have to figure out a way to make sure that those cell phones, stay out of the classrooms. So that has passed the House, and it will now go, to the Senate.

Theresa Freed 3:07
From a parent perspective, it seems like a almost a no brainer. You think you want your kids to be focused on school. What are some of the the exemptions or exceptions that people were concerned about where students might need access to a cell phone?

Valentina Blanchard 3:24
Yeah, I think, like in emergencies, which in the bill, they did have some, provisions for being able to use a school phone, for contacting parents. I think there are also some, provisions related to, those on 504 plans, and some other considerations there.

Theresa Freed 3:40
Okay. We're going to talk about a little bit about the budget process and where we're at with that.

Linda Sheppard 3:48
So yeah. So, I think we talked about this a little bit during the preview. But this is the second year now that the legislature has taken a different approach to how they are, moving on their budget bills. And so, as we we mentioned earlier in the past, that was more led by the governor. Her budget would come out and then they would start working from there. But, the last couple of years, they've actually started working on their budgets even before the session started. So certainly that happened this year. And, both the House and the Senate, had bills that they started working on most at the beginning of this, of the session related to budget. So the House, made, made a lot of progress on theirs. And that and that has passed and will move over to the Senate side. And, there will be continued to be that work on it. But it, it is, a very different process and moves very fast. So that is that is a real challenge for any of the parties who are, trying to get funding for, for various things into the budget. Because that they, that, that moves so quickly, they had to really, either get those things in before the session started or, needed to be able to, to come and testify when they were having those hearings early on.

Theresa Freed 5:03
Was there a point or a particular topic within any of the budgets that that really they they got stuck on and they were finding some challenges?

Linda Sheppard 5:14
You know, they really didn't because of the fact that that they have done so much of this work before the session starts. Some of that has kind of already worked through. So they had already gotten presentations from a number of the state agencies in terms of what they were going to need for funding. So, I mean, you know, there's always discussion about, you know, do we do we cover this? Do we cover that? But I think that, you know, that process has gone along pretty smoothly. And, they they have again, the House Appropriations Committee was able to move forward with their bill.

Theresa Freed 5:44
Alright. So another hot topic, of course, has been workforce, related to health. So can you talk about some of the key legislation there.

Valentina Blanchard 5:52
Yeah. So workforce was always a topic of interest. Both scope of work and licensing and trying to improve some workforce shortages. We did see some compacts again, athletic trainers and estheticians. And then we saw some scope of work changes, physical therapists to perform some capillary tests, some pharmacist scope of practice changes, licensing, speech language pathologist assistants, adding APRNs to the health care stabilization fund, and a lot of just various, ways to, potentially address some of those workforce shortages, changes to some loan programs and things like that.

Theresa Freed 6:32
You know. Right. And just from a communications, public relations perspective, I know, the state Board of Nursing came up quite a bit in the news, in the headlines. And so what was the the challenge there?

Valentina Blanchard 6:45
So they did end up making some changes to the powers for the, the state Board of Nursing. There were some concerns with some disciplinary actions related to licensure renewal. And so they did void they, they passed a bill that would void some of those, actions that took place, I think, from 2005 to 2026.

Theresa Freed 7:04
Got it.

Linda Sheppard 7:05
And, Theresa, I might mention on that, on that, Board of Nursing legislation that's going through, you know, one of the things that did come up, at the end when the bill did finally, did finally pass through was some of the legislators were commenting that this was maybe really just the first step in sort of updating that, that nurses licensing act. The legislators that said, you know, they weren't totally happy with what was being done right now, but sort of recognized it as kind of a first step in to starting to bring this, bring that act up to, up to current. So it'll we'll expect to see it more, in the coming weeks, coming sessions.

Theresa Freed 7:44
Alright. We'll continue to follow that as well. Alright. So, the next topic and this is one that is is always brought up in one form or another, is, is child welfare. There are always improvements that can be made in this system of course. And so what were some of the key actions.

Linda Sheppard 8:01
Well, so I I actually Val probably is, better equipped to speak of specifics about this, but I think the thing that was most interesting to me, and I and I think at the during the preview, we did bring up the fact that we thought we were going to see a lot, continue to see a lot more of child welfare legislation. That's something that they've really been focused on in the last few years. And and then I think we had gotten some, some indications, even before the session started, that this was absolutely going to be, a year for child welfare. And I think that's so what's so interesting is that as the the broad number of topics that they are covering related to children. So, you know, Val mentioned, the cell phones and the focus on, improving, academic performance and some mental health improvements and those kinds of things. But they are, you know, they're they're focusing, as you can imagine, continue to focus on on the foster care system and the children entering the system and exiting the system and trying to get that process to move quicker and excuse me. And, also, I mean it from all the way to things that are that are very technical. So focusing on, how children can access social media and, the time that they spend on the, on the internet and on apps. And so there's, there's this very, very broad focus on, on, protecting children. You know, I think, we may have mentioned this before, I can't recall, but, you know, there's there's a bill that wants to, really encourage school districts to expand the amount of time that they allow children for recess.So it's just an I mean, there are so many different things where they have touched, you know, trying to protect children, trying to take care of children, trying to, you know, make sure that there are protections, you know, but as you could imagine, things like making sure there's training for to identify sexual abuse and those kinds of things. So it is it's, it's really, a big job to keep up with, just with the things that that I think we here at KHI certainly refer to as child welfare because they, they are covering a wide variety of topics.

Theresa Freed 10:15
Right. Alright. Val, any of those in particular, you want to highlight?

Valentina Blanchard 10:16
Two bills that passed the House, so far relate to establishing a child abuse and neglect registry. And then also making child abuse reporting, not anonymous anymore. And so they'll be looking at that, really trying to make sure that people are identifying themselves when reporting to DCF. Law enforcement reporting would still be anonymous. But they did, put some confidentiality protections in there, trying to encourage people to still identify themselves in reporting.

Theresa Freed 10:44
Okay. Alright. And then the next topic sort of, somewhat related to the previous one. But when we talk about, drug abuse and substance use. So, several different pieces of legislation that have been, considered. Can you talk about that those?

Valentina Blanchard 11:06
Yeah. And this is something that recently at the Federal level, they've also highlighted some additional funding for, for substance use in opioid, topics. But one of the bills that passed the House, would allow people to use expired Naloxone on or an emergency, opioid antagonist, I guess is the official term for it is and also, essentially create like a Good Samaritan for those who do use an antagonists like that, for, really encouraging the public to, to, seek help or help someone, when needed.

Theresa Freed 11:37
So that would be someone would be able to intervene to help with that process without being penalized.

Valentina Blanchard 11:45
Yeah. Okay. And then again, talking about children, putting fentanyl education programs into schools. That bill has also, passed one of the chambers. And so, schools will also be stocking Naloxone, as part of that as well.

Theresa Freed 11:58
Okay. And there has been a lot of discussion about fentanyl all across the country. Of course. So is this just one step or do you see that that there might be additional steps to sort of help regulate or protect adults and children?

Valentina Blanchard 12:16
Likely just the first step. Yeah, yeah.

Linda Sheppard 12:17
Theresa, I if I might mention one other one other topic that came up this year and this is this actually, came up several years ago and at a time when I certainly didn't know what this was, but this this, leaf called kratom, which is something that apparently has been broadly used and, and is sold and, available to people who want to purchase that product. And, you know, the, it has in some ways, reminds me a little bit of some of the things that they talk about, marijuana and THC in terms of being able to relieve pain, and that kind of thing. So there were people that were using this. There are, that there is a bill that, got a lot of attention this, this session about kratom and, and whether or not it needed to be moved up to the more serious, schedule one for, the kinds of effects that it could have on people and, and, of course, as you can imagine, the people that have been using it and selling it for some time are saying, "oh, it's not as bad as that." And, and that there's some confusion about one of the chemicals that, that can actually be generated from, from kratom. So it's, it's one of those topics that, you know, a few years ago, it was a word I'd never heard, but, now it's it's all over the place.

Theresa Freed 13:31
So is this the one that they refer to, I think, as a convenience store or or gas station drug. Is that right?

Linda Sheppard 13:40
Well, I'd say I think it is that that readily available. I mean, you know, there's actually a, you know, a Kansas Kratom Association, so, there. I mean, there is enough of a, of a market for, for this product that there's there's plenty of folks out there selling it. And most of the people who are selling it are people who started using it themselves and got some relief and so decided to to start marketing their the product as well.

Theresa Freed 14:01
So probably more discussion along that line as well.

Linda Sheppard 14:02
Absolutely.

Linda Sheppard 14:03
Okay. So kind of moving to this hybrid discussion of both state and federal policy. We know that we've been watching, the federal health policy, all year long, of course. And there are many things that are, decided at the, the federal level that do have state implications. And so, or just the state reacting to some of the news that's happening at the federal level and including, you know, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance benefits as well as, food additives. And so do you want to talk a little bit about the state action related to those?

Valentina Blanchard 14:37
Yeah. So the Make America Healthy or again, or Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA movement, has had a pretty big focus on food additives. And so they did pass a bill out of the Senate that would, for schools that participate in like free or reduced lunch or, free breakfast programs. They would be required to remove, specific additives from their food starting in the 2027 school year.

Theresa Freed 15:03
Alright. And if you want to touch a little bit more on the the SNAP waiver.

Valentina Blanchard 15:09
Yeah. So, this was a bill that was, passed last year requiring DCF to, to apply for a SNAP waiver that would exclude, candy and soft drinks. And so that waiver has been submitted. But there's been some discussion on, how long it's been taking and the responses, that we're getting, they're getting from the federal government and that it hasn't been approved yet. And so they actually passed a bill out of the House, that, put some parameters around that waiver and then also added a new definition of candy. And so there's been some discussion on whether that would, kind of delay the waiver further. But that bill did pass the House. And we'll kind of see when that waiver gets approved. And there's some guidelines that the bill has once the waiver is approved to keep it updated and get it implemented.

Linda Sheppard 15:58
Yeah. And it's interesting because so as Val mentioned last year, there was a bill that was that was, going through that was trying to, get DCF to, direct DCF to submit that waiver application. And, it didn't make it all the way through. So at the end of the session, they put a proviso into the budget bill, which basically withheld some funding from DCF until that, that waiver application was submitted and then was subsequently released. And so as Val indicated, now there is a bill that that at least has made it, halfway through that would that again puts some additional very specific, parameters in terms of when, when the application is to be submitted, but also acknowledging the fact that there is already an application that's pending, and then also making sure that if that gets denied that it that it gets, redone, but also wants to focus on this different definition of candy. And I, you know, I think that there is some, you know, the DCF representatives have said, you know, we may actually be interfering with the process now if we go back and try to try to change some of our language, but, they went back and, legislature went back and pulled some, some, definition from, I think from it, Oklahoma waiver that had had been approved and went with that definition this time. So we'll see. But I did notice that, there have been a couple of, amendments to be added to budget bills that potentially would do something similar to last year, which was which would be to also withhold some, some administrative funding for DCF until that waiver application actually gets approved. So they're kind of doing it in a couple of different ways.

Theresa Freed 17:47
And it seems like, with Make America Healthy Again, I don't want to say pressure, but there I mean, there is a certain degree of pressure from the federal government to sort of align state initiatives with the with what they're doing and so, is do you see that as something that's kind of holding up, programs or services in the state, or is that something that that they're kind of falling in line and making those accommodations?

Linda Sheppard 18:12
I, I absolutely think that there are that there are some, that there's there's some compliance that's trying to occur or some synching up with, with what they see coming from that, from the federal government and, you know, and there are, you know, there are a number of organizations around the country that, have historically, taken a very conservative approach to some of these public assistance programs. And so, we certainly are seeing some of the language coming from those organizations in terms of what's in bills.

Theresa Freed 18:47
And another area where we're seeing some direction or some leadership is in the area of pharmaceuticals and making, certain medications more accessible, more affordable from the federal government perspective. So how do we see that kind of, trickling down to, to Kansas?

Valentina Blanchard 19:03
You know, we weren't sure if we're going to see anything, regarding PBMs. We did they ultimately did, pass a bill through the Senate to, to regulate some PBMs.

Theresa Freed 19:17
That stands for?

Valentina Blanchard 19:18
Pharmacy benefit managers. Oh, sorry. Thank you. To regulate pharmacy benefit managers, requiring registration and some auditing and reporting requirements. We're also seeing movement at the federal level for that. President Trump signed, part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, at the beginning of February. That did some of the similar things. Those reforms would begin in 2028, 2029, time period. But again, some of the standardized reporting transparency, some rebates, pass through, making sure that the rebates are going to the people that they say they're going to. And, some of the reforms like that.

Linda Sheppard 19:58
Yeah. So, on the on the PBMs, Theresa, you know, that is again, this is an issue that has been sort of percolating for a few years. There are a lot of these questions about pharmacy benefit managers and what do they do? And you know, how do they decide how much to, reimburse pharmacies for drugs and, and are there certain, you know, drug lists that they're using and, and those kinds of things. And so I think, you know, Kansas obviously is doing our bill this year, but the for the past few years, there have been a number of states that have tried to pass PBM legislation because it was not happening at the federal level. And I think the states were getting a little, a little, antsy about that and decided they wanted to do something else. So, as she mentioned there, there is some, language in that, in that budget bill that came out. And, it'll be interesting to see how those all sync up, because I suppose it's possible that if the federal government continues to move in this direction, it may, preempt some of the things that have been done at the state level. But I think, you know, as she said, the the federal provisions don't go into place for a while. So I think the states are still trying to get some other, you know, some other provisions put in place before then.

Theresa Freed 21:16
And that seems sort of unusual with this administration that you have that much time. I'm sure it's necessary, but it almost feels like who can move faster, you know, the state or federal at this point. There's so much activity happening. So as we kind of wrap up this episode, any last-minute items we want to talk about, I know there's some discussion about rural health and and what's happening there.

Linda Sheppard 21:36
Yeah. So, again, as, as, you know, as the audience probably knows, you know, we have the, Rural Health Transformation Program grant that Kansas, like all the other states, was awarded. And that happened, a lot of that activity in terms of getting ready to submit that application, to the federal government for approval happened while the legislature was was not in session. And, and so they really didn't have, a lot of opportunity to sort of weigh in on how that application was put together and what kinds of things were put in there. So, I, you know, certainly during the session up to this point, there's been a lot of, interest in having, KDHE come and talk to the various, committees to explain to them how that process came about. What what was done? What did you know? What does that plan look like? And I think at this point, the legislature is, you know, understands that it's kind of a done deal in terms of what's been approved, for that, you know, for this five year program going forward that they are very interested in, in understanding how this is all going to play out. And to the extent that they have an opportunity to, you know, contribute ideas or thoughts into, into how that that grant is ultimately used. I think they're they're trying to do that, but it's there's certainly a lot of interest in that right at the beginning of the session that was they were very curious about about that grant and how how it came together and how it was going to be implemented.

Theresa Freed 23:12
Alright. And since it's a five-year process, it's going to probably be a topic of conversation for a bit to come. Right? And even though the check's written like it hasn't been implemented right, so they can still potentially, have some opinions about that.

Linda Sheppard 23:26
They can I think they can, you know, I know the testimony that's come from KDHE, has been, sort of what what they put in the plan is kind of what's approved and, and, and that there and there perhaps is not as much flexibility in there as, as maybe the legislature would like there to be. But but again, I think to the extent that they're able to, at least, you know, have an opportunity to listen in and see what's going, what's going to happen and where it's going to happen. Obviously, you know, if you're a legislator, you'd like to know, if if there are benefits that are going to come to your district. And so, they're certainly interested in and where these things are happening.

Theresa Freed 24:05
That makes perfect sense. Okay. So for the rest of the session, key dates March 27th is First Adjournment and Veto Session is April 9th. So more or less we had like a month left to get all this work done. Yes. So we'll be following that of course. But then also, we are monitoring and sharing out that information. So if you want to talk about the next, publication.

Linda Sheppard 24:27
Right. So, for this, for this week because of Turnaround, in addition to our normal Health at the Capital summary that we did for last week, we'll also be putting together a full list of all the health-related bills that did make it through Turnaround and so are still, is still active for the second half of the session. And so that that list will be coming out as well.

Theresa Freed 24:50
Alright. Our small but mighty team is is working hard again. So, we appreciate you tuning in to this edition of Health at the Capitol. Join us next time

Voice over 24:59
Thanks for joining us for Health at the Capitol. Sign up to receive our emails at khi.org to get a weekly recap of health policy activity during the Kansas legislative session. You'll also receive our latest publications and information about upcoming events.

Health at the Capitol Production Team

Theresa Freed, M.A., Host, Producer, Editor

Linda J. Sheppard, J.D., Strategy Team Leader, Health at the Capitol

Stewart Cole, Editor, Production Designer

Karsen DeWeese, M.P.H., Accessibility and Evaluation Lead

Cathy McNorton, Website Lead