January 2008 Newsletter
Volume 7, Number 3
How Many People with Disabilities Are There in Kansas
By Michael Fox, Sc.D., University of Kansas Medicaid
Infrastructure Change Evaluation Project
If someone should ask you, ‘How many people with disabilities are there
in Kansas?’ how would you respond? There are two places that most of
us would look first: the national census, and the annual state
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey.
The Census Bureau defines disability as a long-lasting sensory,
physical, mental, or emotional condition. This condition can
make it difficult for a person to do activities such as walking, climbing
stairs, dressing,
bathing, learning, or remembering. It can impede a person from
being able to go outside the home alone or to work at a job or business,
and it includes
people with severe vision or hearing impairments. Since 1996,
the American Community Survey (ACS) has been conducted by the Census
Bureau to provide
data profiles that include disability at federal, state and county
levels. More recently, data can be broken out by many relevant factors
of interest,
such as age, race, income, commute time to work, home value,
veteran status, and other important data from U.S. households. The only
limitations to these
survey data are that they only count persons age 5 and over,
and exclude persons living in institutions. Of course, this seriously
underestimates
many segments of the more severe disability population.
A visit to the Census Bureau website, http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/disability/2005acs.html,
yields the following information for 2005:
•
14.3% of the ≥ 5, non-institutionalized population have at least one
disability. That translates to 352,606 Kansans.
• 5.5% of children 5-20 have a disability, ranking Kansas 45th
out of 51 jurisdictions. The U.S. average is 6.7%.
• 12.1% of working age adults 21-64 have a disability, ranking
Kansas 30th. The U.S. average is 12.7%.
•
40.4% of persons ≥ 65 (and non-institutionalized) have a disability,
ranking Kansas 24th and almost identical to the national average
of 40.5%.
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey has been conducted
annually in Kansas since 1992. Its primary purpose is to monitor
behavioral health risks and preventive health practices. The
survey is limited to the
population of non-institutionalized persons age 18 and older.
Two questions are used to screen for persons with disabilities;
one related to activity
limitations due to physical, emotional, or sensory “problems,” and
the other asking about health “problems” that require some form
of assistive device.
Visiting the KDHE website in which these data can be accessed,
http://www.kdheks.gov/brfss/, yields the following information
for the same year, 2005:
•
19.7% of the ≥ 18, non-institutionalized population have at least one
disability. That translates to 407,690 persons using 2005 Census figures
for the number of persons ≥ 18 in Kansas, http://www.infoplease.com/us/census/data/kansas.
• Estimating a 5.5% prevalence for the remaining 5-17 year old
population of approximately 500,000 would add another 27,500
to this figure, or 435,190 Kansans.
So who should we believe, and what is the real figure?
Before answering that, it may be helpful to know that Census
questions (http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/disability/disabcps.html ) are much more comprehensive and work-oriented than are those of the BRFSS,
which
many people could answer who may be recovering, for example,
from a short-term disability. So the real answer is that if you want a minimum
number of non-institutionalized
persons age five and older based on a tighter definition of disability,
for 2005 it would be 352,606. If you want a maximum number based on a looser
definition of disability, it would be about 435,190 for the same
year.
To get an even truer estimate, we’ll uncover and take a look at other
populations in the next issue…
Watch Future Issues for a Continuing “Data Watch” Column !!
Benefits Specialist Corner
This issue features Working Healthy Benefits Specialist Earl
Williams from the Emporia Area SRS office. Earl has put his strong belief in
the program into his work as a Benefits Specialist for the past 3 years. His
area covers much of southcentral Kansas, including the counties of Butler,
Chase, Chautauqua, Cowley, Elk, Greenwood, Harvey, Lyon, Marion, McPherson,
Morris, Reno, Rice, and Sumner. Earl can be reached by phone at (620) 342-2505
ext. 233 or by email at Earl.Williams@srs.ks.gov.
Being a Benefits Specialist for the State of Kansas means that
I am one of seven people who are enlisted to help consumers living with
disabilities take control of their lives. By providing consumers with
information that will help inform the decisions they make, we can enhance
their efforts to become self sufficient and independent.
Part of my job is to explain different programs that are offered
to the consumers I serve on a daily basis. Summarized below is some of
the information I give out regularly to consumers who call and ask what
programs are available or to better understand what the coverage they currently
have means. The following are just a few such examples. The Benefits Specialists
are available to answer questions on a case-by-case basis via individual
meetings with consumers or we can meet with larger groups to provide group
trainings on various topics of interest.
I will start with the following question: “What are the
differences between Medicare Parts A, B, C and D?”
There are currently four parts to Medicare: Medicare Part A,
hospital insurance; Medicare Part B, medical insurance; Medicare
Part C (Medicare Advantage), which was formerly known as “Medicare
+ Choice;” and Medicare Part D, prescription drug coverage.
Generally, people who are over age 65 and getting Social Security
automatically qualify for Medicare Parts A and B. Further,
people who have been getting disability benefits for two years,
people who have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s
disease) and receive disability benefits, and people who have
permanent kidney failure and receive maintenance dialysis or
a kidney transplant also qualify automatically for Parts A & B.
• Part A is paid for by a portion of the Social Security tax. It helps
pay for inpatient hospital care, skilled nursing care, hospice care and other
services.
• Part B is paid partially by the monthly premiums ($96.40) of the people
enrolled and by general funds
from the U.S. Treasury. It helps pay for doctors’ fees, outpatient hospital
visits, and other medical services
and supplies that are not covered by Part A.
• Part C (Medicare Advantage) plans are optional and allow you to choose
to receive all of your health care services through a private provider organization.
These plans may help lower your costs of receiving medical services, or you may
get extra benefits for an additional monthly fee. You must have both Parts A
and B to enroll in Part C.
• Part D (prescription drug coverage) is voluntary and the costs are paid
for by the monthly premiums of enrollees and Medicare. Unlike Part B in which
you are automatically enrolled and must opt-out if you do not want it, with Part
D you have to opt-in by filling out a form and enrolling in an approved plan.
If you are interested in finding out more information on Medicare, Medicaid or
other related programs and services, please contact your local Working Healthy
Benefits Specialist. A full listing of Specialists is available at www.workinghealthy.org
or by calling toll-free, 1-800-449-1439.
- Earl Williams, Working Healthy Benefits Specialist
Federal Grant Brings Navigators to Kansas
By Daniel Lassley, Working Healthy
Employment Consultant
Disability Program Navigators are coming to Kansas, thanks to a grant from
the U.S. Department of Labor. The Kansas Department of Commerce is responsible
for administration of the Navigator program, which places a Navigator in
each of Kansas’ five Workforce Investment Act (WIA) local areas. Their
purpose is to provide expertise to Workforce Center staff, job seekers and businesses
on the many programs and services that impact the successful employment of
people
with disabilities including workplace accommodations, adaptive and assistive
technologies, work incentives, tax incentives and accessibility.
A primary objective of each Navigator is to increase employment
and self sufficiency for persons with disabilities by linking them to
employers and facilitating
access to programs and services that will enable their entry or reentry into
the workforce. Navigators facilitate training and provide disability-related
resources and information to Workforce Center staff in order to ensure that
job seekers with disabilities are served effectively. Navigators will also
conduct outreach to people with disabilities by providing information
on workforce services
available through Kansas’ Workforce Centers. In addition, Navigators will
make information available to businesses and business organizations regarding
work accommodations, accessibility and tax incentives. Navigators will facilitate
systems change within the One-Stop system by collaborating with disability-related
service organizations in order to enhance the capacity of the Workforce Center
to provide a comprehensive array of services for our job seeker and business
customers.
To date, three of the six Navigator positions have been filled. Applications
for the positions are still being accepted for Local Area I (western Kansas)
and Local Area IV (south central Kansas), as well as for the Coordinator
position in Topeka. Look for more announcements regarding the activities of
the Navigators
in your area.
This newsletter and other Working Healthy information can be found online
at: http://www.workinghealthy.org
Working Healthy is published quarterly by the University of Kansas CRL, Division
of Adult Studies and the Kansas Health Policy Authority. Additional copies and
copies in alternate formats are available upon request by writing the University
of Kansas Division of Adult Studies, Attn: Noelle, 1122 West Campus Rd.. JRP
Hall Rm. 517, Lawrence, KS 66045, by phone (785) 864-7085, by emailing: pixie@ku.edu
KU Research Team:
Jean P. Hall, Principal Investigator
Michael Fox, Co-Principal Investigator
Noelle K. Kurth, Project Coordinator and Editor
Emily Fall, Graduate Research Assistant
Shawna Carroll, Graduate Research Assistant
Emily Tonsfeldt, Student Assistant
Kansas Health Policy Authority:
Mary Ellen O'Brien Wright, Senior Manager
Nancy Scott, Program Manager
Daniel Lassley, Employment Consultant