This report originally appeared in the July 2010 issue of DOTmed Business News

Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson has signed into law HB 2320, which imposes a tax on nursing home beds. The annual tax will be called a "quality care assessment," and ranges up to $1,950 per licensed bed. The exceptions to the tax are facilities that are part of a continuing care retirement facility, small skilled nursing care facilities and high-Medicaid volume skilled nursing care facilities. For those exceptions, the assessment will not be more than one-sixth the annual tax amount assessed on all other facilities.
The Kansas Health Policy Authority has the responsibility to implement the tax, in addition to establishing a quality care fund to deposit both taxes and penalties collected and establishing a quality care improvement panel. The funds collected will be used for, among other things, improving the quality and quantity of care provided by professional care providers in Kansas.


At the same time Parkinson signed the nursing home bed tax, he also vetoed a provision that would have required the Kansas Health Policy Authority to study the issue of requiring health insurers to reimburse certain mental health professionals for some proactive treatments. The governor explained on his website that the authority has neither the resources nor funding for the study, which would involve significant data analysis.

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