Mike Shields

Managing Editor, KHI News Service & Strategy Team Leader

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Mike Shields, Managing Editor of the KHI News Service, directs news content and special communications projects. Before joining KHI, he was the city editor at the Lawrence Journal-World. He has covered Kansas government as a reporter for Harris News Service and other news organizations for almost three decades. He has won multiple state and national awards, including the Burton W. Marvin Kansas News Enterprise Award in 1993. Shields earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and history from Wichita State University and has a special interest in Geographic Information Systems. He is fluent in Spanish.

Work by Mike

Wichita lawmaker introduces KanCare oversight bill

A Wichita lawmaker has introduced a bill that would require an annual evaluation of the state's Medicaid managed care contractors.

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‘Turf battle’ continues over dental practitioner bill

Dentists oppose new classification, while supporters cite need for dental care providers

A bill that would allow a new type of oral health care provider in Kansas faces opposition from dentists. But backers of the bill include the state’s safety net clinics, major health foundations, several dentists who disagree with the association’s stand and officials at Fort Hays State University, which wants to launch a program to train the registered dental practitioners.

Ag secretary criticizes bioscience board

Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman, the administration's point man during the audit of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, criticized the authority's board of directors in remarks to a joint meeting of the House and Senate Commerce committees. KBA directors weren't given an opportunity to respond during the hearing, but KBA Chairman Dan Watkins later told reporters that the criticisms were off-base and that the administration was pushing for control of the agency.

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KU Cancer Center director defends Kansas Bioscience Authority

KBA critical to KU cancer center quest, lawmakers told

The director of the University of Kansas Cancer Center today urged legislators to "not throw the baby out with the bath water" as they consider the results of an extensive audit of operations at the Kansas Bioscience Authority.

Senator calls for delay of governor's KanCare plan

Goddard Republican says too many unanswered questions remain about Medicaid makeover

Sen. Dick Kelsey, a Goddard Republican, recommended that Gov. Sam Brownback delay and modify his plan to remake the state's Medicaid program. Kelsey's statement came as the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee ended several days of hearings on the governor's KanCare proposal.

Spokesmen for the developmentally disabled pan Brownback Medicaid plan

Parents and others say KanCare proposal is untried and hasty

Gov. Sam Brownback's plan to include services for the developmentally disabled in a pending move to expand Medicaid managed care drew rebukes from spokesmen for disability groups and parents who said the administration's KanCare plan was untried and moving too quickly. They urged legislators to intervene.

Mental health centers voice conditional support for Medicaid makeover

"Devil is in the detail," lawmakers are told as part of ongoing hearings on KanCare plan

In a fourth day of hearings on Gov. Sam Brownback's plan to remake the state's Medicaid program, a spokesman for the state's community mental health centers voiced conditional support for the KanCare proposal. But others told legislators the plan was "radical" because of its scope and rapid timeline.

Doctor and hospital groups endorse KanCare plan

KMS and KHA spokesmen testify in favor of expanding Medicaid managed care

The heads of the Kansas Medical Society and the Kansas Hospital Association testified in favor of expanding Medicaid managed care to include long-term services for the developmentally disabled, the elderly and the mentally ill. But a spokesman for the state's Community Developmental Disability Organizations said the local groups already coordinate care for their clients and control costs, so the changes proposed by Gov. Sam Brownback would add new layers of needless complexity while giving insurance companies too much say in the lives of vulnerable Kansans.

Brownback officials challenged on Medicaid plan

More tough questions during a second day of legislative hearings

The state's top social service officials faced another round of tough questioning from legislators during a second day of hearings on Gov. Sam Brownback's plan to privatize the Kansas Medicaid program. The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee is scheduled to continue the hearings on the proposed move to more managed care over the course of three days next week.

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Governor calls for large budget reserve as part of a packed agenda

A brief message calling for a $465 million ending balance and several major policy changes

In a speech one spectator described as brief but dense, Gov. Sam Brownback on Wednesday gave his constitutionally mandated State of the State message to the Legislature. The governor used fleeting phrases and 25 minutes to sketch a heavily weighted agenda that augurs a session potentially more complex than any since 1992, which was when lawmakers last rewrote the finance formula for public schools at the same time they redrew their own and federal legislative districts.

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