Kansas cannot fund a bigger mental health workforce and then let plans shrink the network

Kansas keeps saying the quiet part out loud: We have a behavioral health crisis, and we need more providers, urgently. We’ve backed that message with real policy choices: investing in workforce training, expanding Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics and strengthening crisis response through 988.

Yet, my colleagues across the state are reporting a different reality inside Medicaid managed care: participating provider agreements being terminated “without cause,” often in communities that already struggle to access services.