By Mike Shields
KHI News Service
July 16, 2008

TOPEKA — The chairperson of the board of the Kansas Health Policy Authority will step down at the board’s reorganization meeting next month to pursue a lobbying career.

Connie Hubbell had been expected to be reappointed to the board by Kansas House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls.

But Hubbell said she would be downsized out of her current job as senior vice president for the Kansas Foundation for Medical Care effective July 31. She then intends to start a lobbying practice and might seek clients from the health care industry. If she remained on the health policy authority board that could create conflicts of interest or limit her potential client list, she said.

Hubbell is widely known in state political circles and has generally been viewed as an effective, business-like chairperson for the health policy authority.

She served 10 years on the Kansas State Board of Education before running for lieutenant governor in 1994. She and her Republican running mate, Fred Kerr, lost to then-Secretary of State Bill Graves in the GOP primary. Graves went on to become governor.

Hubbell later joined the Graves administration, spending five years at the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services before becoming secretary at the Department on Aging in 1999.

When Graves left office, Hubbell joined the Kansas Foundation for Medical Care, a federally funded non-profit corporation charged with measuring and improving the quality of care in the state’s hospitals, nursing homes, doctors’ offices, and home health agencies.

Hubbell said recent cutbacks in federal grants to the foundation have prompted layoffs of about 25 of the 65 staff members, including her.

She said she would establish a lobbying practice separate from that of her husband, long-time lobbyist Pat Hubbell, but perhaps share some office resources with him.

“I’m not ready to retire yet,” she said. “I still have a lot of energy.”

Hubbell said she announced her decision to leave the board privately to fellow board members and Executive Director Marcia Nielsen at a dinner during the panel’s annual retreat last month but wouldn’t make her departure official until the board holds its annual reorganization meeting in August.

Hubbell’s term is due to expire, but it was expected she would be reappointed just as fellow board members Joe Tilghman and Ned Holland were reappointed earlier this year for second four-year terms.

Board member Garen Cox’s first term also is drawing to a close.

“We are finalizing the appointment to replace Mrs. Hubbell and the speaker anticipates also reappointing Garen Cox,” said Sherriene Jones-Sontag, the speaker’s spokesperson.

“Kansans benefited greatly from her knowledge and experience and she will be missed,” Neufeld said of Hubbell.

"Connie Hubbell has brought a wealth of experience and vitality to the KHPA board," Nielsen said. "She has shown an infinite capacity for building collaboration and fostering substantive change. She will be greatly missed by the board and the KHPA staff alike."
 
-Mike Shields is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at mshields@khi.org or at 785-233-5443, ext. 123.