Cyberattacks on health care systems don’t just cost money. They can make it harder for clinicians to keep their patients safe.

By&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/author/rachana-pradhan/">Rachana Pradhan</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/author/kate-wells/">Kate Wells</a><a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/">The Beacon</a>

In the wake of a debilitating cyberattack against one of the nation’s largest health care systems, Marvin Ruckle, a nurse at an Ascension hospital in Wichita, said he had a frightening experience: He nearly gave a baby “the wrong dose of narcotic” because of confusing paperwork.

Ruckle, who has worked in the neonatal intensive care unit at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph for two decades, said it was “hard to decipher which was the correct dose” on the medication record. He’d “never seen that happen,” he said, “when we were on the computer system” before the cyberattack.

A May 8 ransomware attack against Ascension, a Catholic health system with 140 hospitals in at least 10 states, locked providers out of systems that track and coordinate nearly every aspect of patient care. They include its systems for electronic health records, some phones, and ones “utilized to order certain tests, procedures and medications,” the company said in a May 9 statement.

More than a dozen doctors and nurses who work for the sprawling health system told Michigan Public and KFF Health News that patient care at its hospitals across the nation was compromised in the fallout of the cyberattack over the past several weeks. Clinicians working for hospitals in three states described harrowing lapses, including delayed or lost lab results, medication errors, and an absence of routine safety checks via technology to prevent potentially fatal mistakes.

Despite a precipitous rise in cyberattacks against the health sector in recent years, a weeks-long disruption of this magnitude is beyond what most health systems are prepared for, said&nbsp;<a href="https://medicine.umich.edu/dept/pharmacy/john-s-clark-pharmd-ms-bcps-fashp">John Clark</a>, an associate chief pharmacy officer at the University of Michigan health system.

“I don’t believe that anyone is fully prepared,” he said. Most emergency management plans “are designed around long-term downtimes that are into one, two, or three days.”

Ascension in a&nbsp;<a href="https://about.ascension.org/cybersecurity-event">public statement May 9</a>&nbsp;said its care teams were “trained for these kinds of disruptions,” but did not respond to questions in early June about whether it had prepared for longer periods of downtime. Ascension said June 14 it had restored access to electronic health records across its network, but that patient “medical records and other information collected between May 8” and when the service was restored “may be temporarily inaccessible as we work to update the portal with information collected during the system downtime.”

Ruckle said he “had no training” for the cyberattack.

Lisa Watson, an intensive care unit nurse at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis hospital in Wichita, described her own close call. She said she nearly administered the wrong medication to a critically ill patient because she couldn’t scan it as she normally would. “My patient probably would have passed away had I not caught it,” she said.

Watson is no stranger to using paper for patients’ medical charts, saying she did so “for probably half of my career,” before electronic health records became ubiquitous in hospitals. What happened after the cyberattack was “by no means the same.”

“When we paper-charted, we had systems in place to get those orders to other departments in a timely manner,” she said, “and those have all gone away.”

Melissa LaRue, an ICU nurse at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, described a close call with “administering the wrong dosage” of a patient’s blood pressure medication. “Luckily,” she said, it was “triple-checked and remedied before that could happen. But I think the potential for harm is there when you have so much information and paperwork that you have to go through.”

Clinicians say their hospitals have relied on slapdash workarounds, using handwritten notes, faxes, sticky notes, and basic computer spreadsheets — many devised on the fly by doctors and nurses — to care for patients.

More than a dozen other nurses and doctors, some of them without union protections, at Ascension hospitals in Michigan recounted situations in which they say patient care was compromised. Those clinicians spoke on the condition that they not be named for fear of retaliation by their employer.

An Ascension hospital emergency room doctor in Detroit said a man on the city’s east side was given a dangerous narcotic intended for another patient because of a paperwork mix-up. As a result, the patient’s breathing slowed to the point that he had to be put on a ventilator. “We intubated him and we sent him to the ICU because he got the wrong medication.”

A nurse in a Michigan Ascension hospital ER said a woman with low blood sugar and “altered mental status” went into cardiac arrest and died after staff said they waited four hours for lab results they needed to determine how to treat her, but never received. “If I started having crushing chest pain in the middle of work and thought I was having a big one, I would grab someone to drive me down the street to another hospital,” the same ER nurse said.

Similar concerns reportedly led a travel nurse at an Ascension hospital in Indiana to quit. “I just want to warn those patients that are coming to any of the Ascension facilities that there will be delays in care. There is potential for error and for harm,” Justin Neisser&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NofGfUnptfs">told CBS4</a>&nbsp;in Indianapolis in May.

Several nurses and doctors at Ascension hospitals said they feared the errors they’ve witnessed since the cyberattack began could threaten their professional licenses. “This is how a RaDonda Vaught happens,” one nurse said, referring to the Tennessee nurse who was convicted of&nbsp;<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/radonda-vaught-nurse-drug-error-vanderbilt-guilty-verdict/">criminally negligent homicide</a>&nbsp;in 2022 for a fatal drug error.

Reporters were not able to review records to verify clinicians’ claims because of privacy laws surrounding patients’ medical information that apply to health care professionals.

Ascension declined to answer questions about claims that care has been affected by the ransomware attack. “As we have made clear throughout this cyber attack which has impacted our system and our dedicated clinical providers, caring for our patients is our highest priority,” Sean Fitzpatrick, Ascension’s vice president of external communications, said via email on June 3. “We are confident that our care providers in our hospitals and facilities continue to provide quality medical care.”

The federal government requires hospitals to protect patients’ sensitive health data, according to cybersecurity experts. However, there are no federal requirements for hospitals to prevent or prepare for cyberattacks that could compromise their electronic systems.

Hospitals: ‘The No.1 Target of Ransomware’

“We’ve started to think about these as public health issues and disasters on the scale of earthquakes or hurricanes,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-tully-672679102/">Jeff Tully</a>, a co-director of the Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity at the University of California-San Diego. “These types of cybersecurity incidents should be thought of as a matter of when, and not if.”

Josh Corman, a cybersecurity expert and advocate, said ransom crews regard hospitals as the perfect prey: “They have terrible security and they’ll pay. So almost immediately, hospitals went to the No. 1 target of ransomware.”

In 2023, the health sector experienced the largest share of ransomware attacks of 16 infrastructure sectors considered vital to national security or safety, according to an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2023_IC3Report.pdf">FBI report on internet crimes</a>. In March, the federal Department of Health and Human Services said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/03/13/hhs-office-civil-rights-issues-letter-opens-investigation-change-healthcare-cyberattack.html">reported large breaches involving ransomware</a>&nbsp;had jumped by 264% over the past five years.

A cyberattack this year on Change Healthcare, a unit of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division that processes billions of health care transactions every year,&nbsp;<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/unitedhealth-change-healthcare-hack-cyber-cybersecurity-ransomware/">crippled the business</a>&nbsp;of providers, pharmacies, and hospitals.

In May, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty&nbsp;<a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/what-we-learned-change-healthcare-cyber-attack">told lawmakers</a>&nbsp;the company paid a $22 million ransom as a result of the Change Healthcare attack — which occurred after hackers accessed a company portal that didn’t have multifactor authentication, a basic cybersecurity tool.

The Biden administration in recent months&nbsp;<a href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/cyber/Documents/Health-Care-Sector-Cybersecurity-Dec2023-508.pdf">has pushed</a>&nbsp;to bolster health care cybersecurity standards, but it’s not clear which new measures will be required.

In January, HHS&nbsp;<a href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/newsroom/Pages/HHS-Releases-CPGs-and-Gateway-Website-Jan2024.aspx">nudged companies</a>&nbsp;to improve email security, add multifactor authentication, and institute cybersecurity training and testing, among other voluntary measures. The Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services is expected to release new requirements for hospitals, but the scope and timing are unclear. The same is true of an update HHS is expected to make to patient privacy regulations.

HHS said the voluntary measures “will inform the creation of new enforceable cybersecurity standards,” department spokesperson Jeff Nesbit said in a statement.

“The recent cyberattack at Ascension only underscores the need for everyone in the health care ecosystem to do their part to secure their systems and protect patients,” Nesbit said.

Meanwhile, lobbyists for the hospital industry contend cybersecurity mandates or penalties are misplaced and would curtail hospitals’ resources to fend off attacks.

Ascension in 2022 was the third-largest hospital chain in the U.S. by number of beds, according to the most recent data from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (Travis Heying/ KFF Health News)

“Hospitals and health systems are not the primary source of cyber risk exposure facing the health care sector,” the American Hospital Association, the largest lobbying group for U.S. hospitals, said in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aha.org/testimony/2024-04-17-aha-house-statement-fiscal-year-2025-department-health-and-human-services-budget">an April statement</a>&nbsp;prepared for U.S. House lawmakers. Most large&nbsp;<a href="https://ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/breach/breach_report.jsf">data breaches</a>&nbsp;that hit hospitals in 2023 originated with third-party “business associates” or other health entities, including CMS itself, the AHA statement said.

Hospitals consolidating into large multistate health systems&nbsp;<a href="https://news.utdallas.edu/business-management/hospital-mergers-hacking-2023/">face increased risk</a>&nbsp;of data breaches and ransomware attacks, according to one study. Ascension in 2022 was the third-largest hospital chain in the U.S. by number of beds, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ahrq.gov/chsp/data-resources/compendium.html">most recent data</a>&nbsp;from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

And while cybersecurity regulations can quickly become outdated, they can at least make it clear that if health systems fail to implement basic protections there “should be consequences for that,”&nbsp;<a href="https://ioe.engin.umich.edu/people/bagian-jim/">Jim Bagian</a>, a former director of the National Center for Patient Safety at the Veterans Health Administration, told Michigan Public’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.michiganpublic.org/podcast/stateside/2024-05-22/stateside-podcast-ransomware-attack-at-ascension">Stateside</a>.

Patients can pay the price when lapses occur. Those in hospital care face&nbsp;<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4579292">a greater likelihood of death</a>&nbsp;during a cyberattack, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

Workers concerned about patient safety at Ascension hospitals in Michigan have called for the company to make changes.

“We implore Ascension to recognize the internal problems that continue to plague its hospitals, both publicly and transparently,” said Dina Carlisle, a nurse and the president of the OPEIU Local 40 union, which represents nurses at Ascension Providence Rochester. At least 125 staff members at that Ascension hospital have&nbsp;<a href="https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/urgent-ascension-providence-rochester-medical-professionals-demand-safety-precautions-in-hospital-amid-cyber-attack">signed a petition</a>&nbsp;asking administrators to temporarily reduce elective surgeries and nonemergency patient admissions, like under the protocols many hospitals adopted early in the covid-19 pandemic.

Watson, the Kansas ICU nurse, said in late May that nurses had urged management to bring in more nurses to help manage the workflow. “Everything that we say has fallen on deaf ears,” she said.

“It is very hard to be a nurse at Ascension right now,” Watson said in late May. “It is very hard to be a patient at Ascension right now.”

This story was originally published by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kff.org/">KFF Health News</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1719930547420.png" alt="Marvin Ruckle, who has worked for two decades as a neonatal intensive care unit nurse at an Ascension hospital in Kansas, said confusing paperwork nearly led him to administer the wrong dose of a narcotic to a baby after the health system suffered a cyberattack on May 8. Credit: Travis Heying / KFF Health News" />
 <figcaption>Marvin Ruckle, who has worked for two decades as a neonatal intensive care unit nurse at an Ascension hospital in Kansas, said confusing paperwork nearly led him to administer the wrong dose of a narcotic to a baby after the health system suffered a cyberattack on May 8. Credit: Travis Heying / KFF Health News</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Cyberattacks on health care systems don’t just cost money. They can make it harder for clinicians to keep their patients safe.</h2>By&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/author/rachana-pradhan/">Rachana Pradhan</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/stories/author/kate-wells/">Kate Wells</a><a href="https://thebeaconnews.org/">The Beacon</a>In the wake of a debilitating cyberattack against one of the nation’s largest health care systems, Marvin Ruckle, a nurse at an Ascension hospital in Wichita, said he had a frightening experience: He nearly gave a baby “the wrong dose of narcotic” because of confusing paperwork.Ruckle, who has worked in the neonatal intensive care unit at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph for two decades, said it was “hard to decipher which was the correct dose” on the medication record. He’d “never seen that happen,” he said, “when we were on the computer system” before the cyberattack.A May 8 ransomware attack against Ascension, a Catholic health system with 140 hospitals in at least 10 states, locked providers out of systems that track and coordinate nearly every aspect of patient care. They include its systems for electronic health records, some phones, and ones “utilized to order certain tests, procedures and medications,” the company said in a May 9 statement.More than a dozen doctors and nurses who work for the sprawling health system told Michigan Public and KFF Health News that patient care at its hospitals across the nation was compromised in the fallout of the cyberattack over the past several weeks. Clinicians working for hospitals in three states described harrowing lapses, including delayed or lost lab results, medication errors, and an absence of routine safety checks via technology to prevent potentially fatal mistakes.Despite a precipitous rise in cyberattacks against the health sector in recent years, a weeks-long disruption of this magnitude is beyond what most health systems are prepared for, said&nbsp;<a href="https://medicine.umich.edu/dept/pharmacy/john-s-clark-pharmd-ms-bcps-fashp">John Clark</a>, an associate chief pharmacy officer at the University of Michigan health system.“I don’t believe that anyone is fully prepared,” he said. Most emergency management plans “are designed around long-term downtimes that are into one, two, or three days.”Ascension in a&nbsp;<a href="https://about.ascension.org/cybersecurity-event">public statement May 9</a>&nbsp;said its care teams were “trained for these kinds of disruptions,” but did not respond to questions in early June about whether it had prepared for longer periods of downtime. Ascension said June 14 it had restored access to electronic health records across its network, but that patient “medical records and other information collected between May 8” and when the service was restored “may be temporarily inaccessible as we work to update the portal with information collected during the system downtime.”Ruckle said he “had no training” for the cyberattack.Back to PaperLisa Watson, an intensive care unit nurse at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis hospital in Wichita, described her own close call. She said she nearly administered the wrong medication to a critically ill patient because she couldn’t scan it as she normally would. “My patient probably would have passed away had I not caught it,” she said.Watson is no stranger to using paper for patients’ medical charts, saying she did so “for probably half of my career,” before electronic health records became ubiquitous in hospitals. What happened after the cyberattack was “by no means the same.”“When we paper-charted, we had systems in place to get those orders to other departments in a timely manner,” she said, “and those have all gone away.”Melissa LaRue, an ICU nurse at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, described a close call with “administering the wrong dosage” of a patient’s blood pressure medication. “Luckily,” she said, it was “triple-checked and remedied before that could happen. But I think the potential for harm is there when you have so much information and paperwork that you have to go through.”Clinicians say their hospitals have relied on slapdash workarounds, using handwritten notes, faxes, sticky notes, and basic computer spreadsheets — many devised on the fly by doctors and nurses — to care for patients.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1719930753692.png" alt="Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph in Wichita, Kansas, one of 140 hospitals the Catholic health system operates nationwide. (Travis Heying/ KFF Health News)" />
 <figcaption>Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph in Wichita, Kansas, one of 140 hospitals the Catholic health system operates nationwide. (Travis Heying/ KFF Health News)</figcaption>
 </figure>More than a dozen other nurses and doctors, some of them without union protections, at Ascension hospitals in Michigan recounted situations in which they say patient care was compromised. Those clinicians spoke on the condition that they not be named for fear of retaliation by their employer.An Ascension hospital emergency room doctor in Detroit said a man on the city’s east side was given a dangerous narcotic intended for another patient because of a paperwork mix-up. As a result, the patient’s breathing slowed to the point that he had to be put on a ventilator. “We intubated him and we sent him to the ICU because he got the wrong medication.”A nurse in a Michigan Ascension hospital ER said a woman with low blood sugar and “altered mental status” went into cardiac arrest and died after staff said they waited four hours for lab results they needed to determine how to treat her, but never received. “If I started having crushing chest pain in the middle of work and thought I was having a big one, I would grab someone to drive me down the street to another hospital,” the same ER nurse said.Similar concerns reportedly led a travel nurse at an Ascension hospital in Indiana to quit. “I just want to warn those patients that are coming to any of the Ascension facilities that there will be delays in care. There is potential for error and for harm,” Justin Neisser&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NofGfUnptfs">told CBS4</a>&nbsp;in Indianapolis in May.Several nurses and doctors at Ascension hospitals said they feared the errors they’ve witnessed since the cyberattack began could threaten their professional licenses. “This is how a RaDonda Vaught happens,” one nurse said, referring to the Tennessee nurse who was convicted of&nbsp;<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/radonda-vaught-nurse-drug-error-vanderbilt-guilty-verdict/">criminally negligent homicide</a>&nbsp;in 2022 for a fatal drug error.Reporters were not able to review records to verify clinicians’ claims because of privacy laws surrounding patients’ medical information that apply to health care professionals.Ascension declined to answer questions about claims that care has been affected by the ransomware attack. “As we have made clear throughout this cyber attack which has impacted our system and our dedicated clinical providers, caring for our patients is our highest priority,” Sean Fitzpatrick, Ascension’s vice president of external communications, said via email on June 3. “We are confident that our care providers in our hospitals and facilities continue to provide quality medical care.”The federal government requires hospitals to protect patients’ sensitive health data, according to cybersecurity experts. However, there are no federal requirements for hospitals to prevent or prepare for cyberattacks that could compromise their electronic systems.Hospitals: ‘The No.1 Target of Ransomware’“We’ve started to think about these as public health issues and disasters on the scale of earthquakes or hurricanes,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-tully-672679102/">Jeff Tully</a>, a co-director of the Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity at the University of California-San Diego. “These types of cybersecurity incidents should be thought of as a matter of when, and not if.”Josh Corman, a cybersecurity expert and advocate, said ransom crews regard hospitals as the perfect prey: “They have terrible security and they’ll pay. So almost immediately, hospitals went to the No. 1 target of ransomware.”In 2023, the health sector experienced the largest share of ransomware attacks of 16 infrastructure sectors considered vital to national security or safety, according to an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2023_IC3Report.pdf">FBI report on internet crimes</a>. In March, the federal Department of Health and Human Services said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/03/13/hhs-office-civil-rights-issues-letter-opens-investigation-change-healthcare-cyberattack.html">reported large breaches involving ransomware</a>&nbsp;had jumped by 264% over the past five years.A cyberattack this year on Change Healthcare, a unit of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division that processes billions of health care transactions every year,&nbsp;<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/unitedhealth-change-healthcare-hack-cyber-cybersecurity-ransomware/">crippled the business</a>&nbsp;of providers, pharmacies, and hospitals.In May, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty&nbsp;<a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/what-we-learned-change-healthcare-cyber-attack">told lawmakers</a>&nbsp;the company paid a $22 million ransom as a result of the Change Healthcare attack — which occurred after hackers accessed a company portal that didn’t have multifactor authentication, a basic cybersecurity tool.The Biden administration in recent months&nbsp;<a href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/cyber/Documents/Health-Care-Sector-Cybersecurity-Dec2023-508.pdf">has pushed</a>&nbsp;to bolster health care cybersecurity standards, but it’s not clear which new measures will be required.In January, HHS&nbsp;<a href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/newsroom/Pages/HHS-Releases-CPGs-and-Gateway-Website-Jan2024.aspx">nudged companies</a>&nbsp;to improve email security, add multifactor authentication, and institute cybersecurity training and testing, among other voluntary measures. The Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services is expected to release new requirements for hospitals, but the scope and timing are unclear. The same is true of an update HHS is expected to make to patient privacy regulations.HHS said the voluntary measures “will inform the creation of new enforceable cybersecurity standards,” department spokesperson Jeff Nesbit said in a statement.“The recent cyberattack at Ascension only underscores the need for everyone in the health care ecosystem to do their part to secure their systems and protect patients,” Nesbit said.Meanwhile, lobbyists for the hospital industry contend cybersecurity mandates or penalties are misplaced and would curtail hospitals’ resources to fend off attacks.Ascension in 2022 was the third-largest hospital chain in the U.S. by number of beds, according to the most recent data from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (Travis Heying/ KFF Health News)<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1719930832970.png" alt="Ascension in 2022 was the third-largest hospital chain in the U.S. by number of beds, according to the most recent data from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (Travis Heying/ KFF Health News)" />
 <figcaption>Ascension in 2022 was the third-largest hospital chain in the U.S. by number of beds, according to the most recent data from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (Travis Heying/ KFF Health News)</figcaption>
 </figure>“Hospitals and health systems are not the primary source of cyber risk exposure facing the health care sector,” the American Hospital Association, the largest lobbying group for U.S. hospitals, said in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aha.org/testimony/2024-04-17-aha-house-statement-fiscal-year-2025-department-health-and-human-services-budget">an April statement</a>&nbsp;prepared for U.S. House lawmakers. Most large&nbsp;<a href="https://ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/breach/breach_report.jsf">data breaches</a>&nbsp;that hit hospitals in 2023 originated with third-party “business associates” or other health entities, including CMS itself, the AHA statement said.Hospitals consolidating into large multistate health systems&nbsp;<a href="https://news.utdallas.edu/business-management/hospital-mergers-hacking-2023/">face increased risk</a>&nbsp;of data breaches and ransomware attacks, according to one study. Ascension in 2022 was the third-largest hospital chain in the U.S. by number of beds, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ahrq.gov/chsp/data-resources/compendium.html">most recent data</a>&nbsp;from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.And while cybersecurity regulations can quickly become outdated, they can at least make it clear that if health systems fail to implement basic protections there “should be consequences for that,”&nbsp;<a href="https://ioe.engin.umich.edu/people/bagian-jim/">Jim Bagian</a>, a former director of the National Center for Patient Safety at the Veterans Health Administration, told Michigan Public’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.michiganpublic.org/podcast/stateside/2024-05-22/stateside-podcast-ransomware-attack-at-ascension">Stateside</a>.Patients can pay the price when lapses occur. Those in hospital care face&nbsp;<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4579292">a greater likelihood of death</a>&nbsp;during a cyberattack, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.Workers concerned about patient safety at Ascension hospitals in Michigan have called for the company to make changes.“We implore Ascension to recognize the internal problems that continue to plague its hospitals, both publicly and transparently,” said Dina Carlisle, a nurse and the president of the OPEIU Local 40 union, which represents nurses at Ascension Providence Rochester. At least 125 staff members at that Ascension hospital have&nbsp;<a href="https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/urgent-ascension-providence-rochester-medical-professionals-demand-safety-precautions-in-hospital-amid-cyber-attack">signed a petition</a>&nbsp;asking administrators to temporarily reduce elective surgeries and nonemergency patient admissions, like under the protocols many hospitals adopted early in the covid-19 pandemic.Watson, the Kansas ICU nurse, said in late May that nurses had urged management to bring in more nurses to help manage the workflow. “Everything that we say has fallen on deaf ears,” she said.“It is very hard to be a nurse at Ascension right now,” Watson said in late May. “It is very hard to be a patient at Ascension right now.”This story was originally published by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kff.org/">KFF Health News</a>.

Experts: U.S. hospitals prone to cyberattacks like one that hurt patient care at Ascension 

Officials with Benedictine College are in the early stages of exploring the potential of a new medical school at the college in Atchison.  

Benedictine is continuing the project after dissolving a collaboration with Catholic Healthcare International.  

Chief Business Officer Stan Sluder says over the last two years officials have realized the importance a Catholic medical school is to the culture. 

"And also, the impact it will have on the long-term growth of Benedictine and really for the region," Sluder tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "For Benedictine, for Atchison, and really for all of northeast Kansas and our neighbors." 

The project began in 2022. Sluder says the project began after reading reports about the shortage of doctors in three areas: rural medicine, family practice, and Catholic hospitals. 

"So, we thought, well gosh we're really well positioned in all three of those areas to try to address that need," Sluder explains. "And so, I think our interest started because we saw all the reports of the shortage of doctors coming, really a wave of retirements and not enough doctors to replace them." 

Sluder says they also saw a shortage of doctors choosing to practice in rural areas, choosing metro areas instead, which they hope the medical school will help with. 

Sluder says currently the college is in phase one of creating a medical school, calling it an exploration phase, which is going out and getting support.  

That support would come in the way of partners, it will help us with clinical education, residential placements after graduation, and financial support, Sluder says. "We've got some good partners that have experience in that, and we think we're going to be able to explore whether those partnerships and relationships exist." 

Sluder expects the exploration phase to be done this fall before the college will move into the development phase. 

By MATT PIKE St. Joseph Post Officials with Benedictine College are in the early stages of exploring the potential of a new medical school at the college in Atchison. Benedictine is continuing the project after dissolving a collaboration with Catholic Healthcare International. Chief Business Officer Stan Sluder says over the last two years officials have realized the importance a Catholic medical school is to the culture. "And also, the impact it will have on the long-term growth of Benedictine and really for the region," Sluder tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "For Benedictine, for Atchison, and really for all of northeast Kansas and our neighbors." The project began in 2022. Sluder says the project began after reading reports about the shortage of doctors in three areas: rural medicine, family practice, and Catholic hospitals. "So, we thought, well gosh we're really well positioned in all three of those areas to try to address that need," Sluder explains. "And so, I think our interest started because we saw all the reports of the shortage of doctors coming, really a wave of retirements and not enough doctors to replace them." Sluder says they also saw a shortage of doctors choosing to practice in rural areas, choosing metro areas instead, which they hope the medical school will help with. Sluder says currently the college is in phase one of creating a medical school, calling it an exploration phase, which is going out and getting support. That support would come in the way of partners, it will help us with clinical education, residential placements after graduation, and financial support, Sluder says. "We've got some good partners that have experience in that, and we think we're going to be able to explore whether those partnerships and relationships exist." Sluder expects the exploration phase to be done this fall before the college will move into the development phase.

Benedictine College considers new medical school

A four-year-old Wathena boy is being treated at Children’s Mercy
Hospital after nearly drowning at an Independence Day party in Buchanan County.

Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett reports the father and
grandfather of the boy performed CPR after rescuing the boy from the pool.
Emergency workers rushed the boy to Mosaic Life Care. He then was transferred to
Children’s Mercy in Kansas City.

Puett reports his officers responded to the residence on Southwest
36th Road Thursday night shortly before eight o’clock. The boy and
his family were visitors at the party.

This article has been updated since first published to identify the hometown of the victim.

You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.

By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostA four-year-old Wathena boy is being treated at Children’s Mercy
Hospital after nearly drowning at an Independence Day party in Buchanan County.Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett reports the father and
grandfather of the boy performed CPR after rescuing the boy from the pool.
Emergency workers rushed the boy to Mosaic Life Care. He then was transferred to
Children’s Mercy in Kansas City.Puett reports his officers responded to the residence on Southwest
36th Road Thursday night shortly before eight o’clock. The boy and
his family were visitors at the party.This article has been updated since first published to identify the hometown of the victim.You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.

4-year-old being treated after nearly drowning at Buchanan CO party

Some Missouri day care centers have been forced to shutter as state subsidy payments remain backlogged due to glitches in a new system

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/annaspoerre/">ANNA SPOERRE</a>&nbsp;AND&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/cbates/">CLARA BATES</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2022/09/21/missouri-judge-once-again-delays-decision-on-closing-agape-boarding-school/">Missouri Independent</a>

This spring,&nbsp;the state of Missouri owed Kimberly Luong Nichols $5,000 in backlogged payments for children at her Kansas City daycare who were part of a state subsidy program.

For four years, she’s operated a licensed daycare inside her home, where she currently serves 10 children. Luong Nichols stopped drawing a salary last summer to pay for improvements to her center and two new hires, expecting to draw down a salary again this year.&nbsp;

When&nbsp;the full subsidy she was owed stopped arriving, she laid off those staff.

And as they’ve done for the past year, her family of six relies solely on her husband’s $53,000 salary.&nbsp;

They’ve given up little luxuries like going out to dinner and buying fancier shampoo. And they’ve&nbsp;given up&nbsp;bigger luxuries, like vacations.&nbsp;

When bill collectors started calling, her husband considered getting a second job. On several occasions, she considered doing away with the daycare entirely. But she didn’t, not wanting to leave the families — many of whom have children with developmental disabilities, or who are in the foster care system — with the stress of searching for a new day care.&nbsp;

Luong Nichols is among thousands of child care providers across Missouri who rely on a state child care subsidy program to keep their daycares afloat.

The subsidy, part of a federal block grant program that is state-administered, helps cover the cost of serving low-income and foster children.&nbsp;

But since late last year, a&nbsp;series of changes created a major headache for many providers and families, as parents were unable to register their children and providers in the most dire circumstances were left without money to pay their staff.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which oversees the program, has largely blamed a contracted vendor for the months-long backlogs. The system, which launched in December, is still not fully operational.&nbsp;

“ … There have been a number of unforeseen challenges during the transition, which involves loading family and provider data from the existing&nbsp;state systems into the new (Child Care Data System),” Mallory McGowin, a spokesperson with the department of education said in a statement Wednesday. “The (Office of Childhood) is working hard to mitigate these issues and sincerely apologizes to the child care providers and families affected.”

But similar backlogs plagued the system three years ago, as parents struggled to enroll children and providers had to make serious budget cuts.

The latest problems have forced some daycares to close. Others have shifted from serving vulnerable children who qualify for the state subsidy to only admitting families who can afford to pay on their own.&nbsp;

Many providers, like Luong Nichols, have weeks where they’re barely hanging on.&nbsp;&nbsp;

In Missouri, child care providers can be registered to get a government stipend for every child on subsidy, meaning they receive a partial amount of tuition directly from families, and then the government covers the rest after care has been provided.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The child care subsidy is a federal program administered by states through the Child Care and Development Block Grant. Families apply for the state to directly pay a child care provider for part of the cost of care.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Only very low-income families&nbsp;<a href="https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/child-care-subsidy/families" target="_blank">qualify in Missouri,</a>&nbsp;along with foster kids and children with special needs. The maximum income a family can make to qualify is 150% of the federal poverty line, or&nbsp;<a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines" target="_blank">$46,800 for a family of four.</a>

The average cost of full-time, center-based care for an infant in Missouri was&nbsp;<a href="https://info.childcareaware.org/hubfs/2022_CC_Afford_Analysis.pdf" target="_blank">$11,059</a>&nbsp;as of 2022, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/05/13/child-care-tax-credits-senate-parson-freedom-caucus/">Child Care Aware.&nbsp;</a>

There were about&nbsp;<a href="https://dss.mo.gov/re/oecmmr.htm" target="_blank">21,000 children receiving the state subsidy</a>&nbsp;as of November, the last publicly available state data. The program shifted from being administered by Missouri’s Department of Social Services to the education department in December. McGowin said the current number is closer to 23,000 children.

Roughly 1,800 of Missouri’s 2,800 licensed and license-exempt providers, including school districts, are contracted to take children on subsidy, Pam Thomas, assistant commissioner for Missouri’s Office of Childhood, said at a State Board of Education meeting last month.&nbsp;

“We do continue to struggle a bit with our vendor and meeting what our expectations are for an efficient and effective system and making clear what’s needed,” Thomas told the board. “And quite frankly the vendor is not delivering on those results to what I would say are our expectations as a department.”&nbsp;

The vendor contracted to develop and implement the new system for the subsidy program is World Wide Technology, McGowin said, a large technology services provider headquartered in St. Louis.

Board members expressed concerns with how to move forward as Thomas reassured them that her department was working “around the clock” to urge the vendor to fix the bugs in the system, which spans about nine steps between a family’s application for subsidy and payment to the provider.

“We have to be cautious about how many more changes we add into the system right now,” she said. “ … We can bend it, but we certainly can’t break it, and I think we’re on the verge of that right now.”

Yet this isn’t the first time the state’s handling of the subsidy program has caused widespread problems for providers and families.&nbsp;

In 2021, the state blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and the rollout of a new system used to track attendance, called KinderConnect, for a&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2021/03/19/emails-show-months-long-backlog-of-payments-to-missouri-child-care-providers/">backlog of thousands of payments.</a>&nbsp;

In spring 2023,&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/05/03/bureaucratic-hurdles-stymie-missouri-families-seeking-help-affording-child-care/">parents reported waiting several months&nbsp;</a>to be approved for the state assistance, leaving them struggling to juggle work and child care.&nbsp;

State Sen. Lauren Arthur, a Democrat from Kansas City, said she was notified of the current spate of issues a few months ago by legislative staff who’d started hearing concerns from constituents.&nbsp;

“It feels like way too much time has passed,” Arthur said. “I suspect that child care providers across the state have already closed as a result of these mistakes and it’s totally unacceptable when already providers are struggling. There are already not enough seats available for children who need them.”

Asked last month if she was looking at alternative vendors ahead of the current multi-million dollar contract running out in December, Thomas, with the education department, said she wasn’t opposed.&nbsp;

However, on Wednesday, McGowin, said the department is not currently planning on finding a new vendor. The subsidy payment issues – 60% of which came from technical issues, according to the state – are expected to be resolved by the end of July.&nbsp;

Missouri pays providers for services after they’re performed, rather than in advance. This, coupled with the fact that providers are paid based on attendance rather than enrollment for children in the subsidy program, makes budgeting nearly impossible for providers who take low-income and foster children.

“We’re really relying on the state and DESE to really prioritize solving these system challenges so providers can be paid quickly,” said Casey Hanson, director of outreach and engagement at the child advocacy nonprofit Kids Win Missouri.&nbsp;

Hanson has spent hundreds of hours with child care providers over the past several years. She knows what’s at stake.

“They’re some of the most resilient people,” she said. “They care about children, they care about the future of our state more than almost anyone.”

Tina Mosley was among the providers who made the difficult decision to stop taking children on subsidy.&nbsp;

For 28 years, she has owned and operated Our Daycare and Learning Center in St. Louis, which is licensed for 10 children. It sits in the Normandy school district where the median household income is less than $39,000, and more than 56% of students in public school have SNAP benefits, according to 2021 data from the&nbsp;<a href="https://nces.ed.gov/Programs/Edge/ACSDashboard/2922650" target="_blank">National Center for Education Statistics.</a>

Every other provider she knows in the area accepts children on subsidy. And they’re all in the same predicament.

“Every one of my colleagues and friends, the state is behind on paying them,” Mosley said. “To the right of me, to the left of me, across the street from me, behind me.”

By only taking private paying families, and by ceasing to collect a salary, Mosley said she’s been able to continue employing her two staff, both of whom are young mothers. And while they no longer take children on subsidy, they still service lower income families, she said.&nbsp;

As a result, she’s not left waiting on payments from the state. A handful of home and center-based providers she knows in the St. Louis area already closed because of the lag.

Several months ago, when most of her children were from the subsidy program, she was helping parents sign up for state benefits as the system transitioned over. She recalls parents sharing screenshots of hold times on the phone with the state surpassing an hour before they had to hang up and return to work, unable to get the immediate help they needed.

“Early child care right now, we feel like we’re in our own personal pandemic,” Mosley said.&nbsp;

But unlike during the COVID-19 pandemic, when government bodies and communities showed up in stride to keep child care providers in business, Mosley said it feels like most people have now turned their backs.

Luong Nichols, in Kansas City, has considered doing what Mosley has done: stop opening her services to families on subsidy.

In an April email to a staffer in Arthur’s office, she lamented her situation. The system had two of her kids on subsidy listed as private pay. A glitch wouldn’t let her submit attendance. She hadn’t heard back on her help ticket.&nbsp;

“I am due to renew child care subsidy next month and really considering not doing it,” she wrote in an email she shared with The Independent. “Payments are still not correct, they owe me all of February and past corrections. Now we are about to end March and that will be added.”

After sending this email, Luong Nichols went on to interview at a local school district. She ultimately turned down the job offer, unable to part with the children in her care, including foster children, kids with behavioral difficulties and low-income children.

“I have single moms and foster children that have been kicked out of other daycares or gone through many placements before they landed on my door. And the kids that I take care of, they’re like family.”

Instead she continued to spend hours on the phone during nap time begging anyone to make her business whole again. She called the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the governor’s office. She even called the White House.&nbsp;

“I’ve had to take on an extra load of work just to fight for something that I’m entitled to,” she said.&nbsp;

As of Wednesday, she said her payments were caught up through May. She credited her persistence, and assistance from Arthur’s staff, for speeding up the payment.

At the same time, Luong Nichols has seen three area centers and four private daycares shutter. She directs most of the blame at the department of education.

“DESE has pushed the industry to the point of no return right now,” she said. ”We’re not going to have enough child care providers in the state of Missouri by the end of this year to take care of subsidy children.” She said it will move to private paying families only.&nbsp;

Hanson, with Kids Win Missouri, said there isn’t currently enough data to know the reality of the child care landscape.&nbsp;

In response to a Sunshine request submitted by The Independent last month, the education agency said they do not currently track the number of backlogged payment resolution requests.&nbsp;

“The reality is, yeah, there are providers that will close,” Hanson said. “That’s why we continue to advocate that we need more state level funding in this space to really maintain a supply.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/3/1711728770058.jpeg" alt="&nbsp;A series of changes to Missouri's child care subsidy program have created a major headache for day care providers, who say they've been forced to make difficult budget decisions as they wait on money owed to them by the state (Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;A series of changes to Missouri's child care subsidy program have created a major headache for day care providers, who say they've been forced to make difficult budget decisions as they wait on money owed to them by the state (Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Some Missouri day care centers have been forced to shutter as state subsidy payments remain backlogged due to glitches in a new system</h2>BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/annaspoerre/">ANNA SPOERRE</a>&nbsp;AND&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/cbates/">CLARA BATES</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2022/09/21/missouri-judge-once-again-delays-decision-on-closing-agape-boarding-school/">Missouri Independent</a>This spring,&nbsp;the state of Missouri owed Kimberly Luong Nichols $5,000 in backlogged payments for children at her Kansas City daycare who were part of a state subsidy program.For four years, she’s operated a licensed daycare inside her home, where she currently serves 10 children. Luong Nichols stopped drawing a salary last summer to pay for improvements to her center and two new hires, expecting to draw down a salary again this year.&nbsp;When&nbsp;the full subsidy she was owed stopped arriving, she laid off those staff.And as they’ve done for the past year, her family of six relies solely on her husband’s $53,000 salary.&nbsp;They’ve given up little luxuries like going out to dinner and buying fancier shampoo. And they’ve&nbsp;given up&nbsp;bigger luxuries, like vacations.&nbsp;When bill collectors started calling, her husband considered getting a second job. On several occasions, she considered doing away with the daycare entirely. But she didn’t, not wanting to leave the families — many of whom have children with developmental disabilities, or who are in the foster care system — with the stress of searching for a new day care.&nbsp;Luong Nichols is among thousands of child care providers across Missouri who rely on a state child care subsidy program to keep their daycares afloat.The subsidy, part of a federal block grant program that is state-administered, helps cover the cost of serving low-income and foster children.&nbsp;But since late last year, a&nbsp;series of changes created a major headache for many providers and families, as parents were unable to register their children and providers in the most dire circumstances were left without money to pay their staff.The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which oversees the program, has largely blamed a contracted vendor for the months-long backlogs. The system, which launched in December, is still not fully operational.&nbsp;“ … There have been a number of unforeseen challenges during the transition, which involves loading family and provider data from the existing&nbsp;state systems into the new (Child Care Data System),” Mallory McGowin, a spokesperson with the department of education said in a statement Wednesday. “The (Office of Childhood) is working hard to mitigate these issues and sincerely apologizes to the child care providers and families affected.”But similar backlogs plagued the system three years ago, as parents struggled to enroll children and providers had to make serious budget cuts.The latest problems have forced some daycares to close. Others have shifted from serving vulnerable children who qualify for the state subsidy to only admitting families who can afford to pay on their own.&nbsp;Many providers, like Luong Nichols, have weeks where they’re barely hanging on.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h2>Payment backlogs not new</h2>In Missouri, child care providers can be registered to get a government stipend for every child on subsidy, meaning they receive a partial amount of tuition directly from families, and then the government covers the rest after care has been provided.&nbsp;&nbsp;The child care subsidy is a federal program administered by states through the Child Care and Development Block Grant. Families apply for the state to directly pay a child care provider for part of the cost of care.&nbsp;&nbsp;Only very low-income families&nbsp;<a href="https://dese.mo.gov/childhood/child-care-subsidy/families" target="_blank">qualify in Missouri,</a>&nbsp;along with foster kids and children with special needs. The maximum income a family can make to qualify is 150% of the federal poverty line, or&nbsp;<a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines" target="_blank">$46,800 for a family of four.</a>The average cost of full-time, center-based care for an infant in Missouri was&nbsp;<a href="https://info.childcareaware.org/hubfs/2022_CC_Afford_Analysis.pdf" target="_blank">$11,059</a>&nbsp;as of 2022, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/05/13/child-care-tax-credits-senate-parson-freedom-caucus/">Child Care Aware.&nbsp;</a>There were about&nbsp;<a href="https://dss.mo.gov/re/oecmmr.htm" target="_blank">21,000 children receiving the state subsidy</a>&nbsp;as of November, the last publicly available state data. The program shifted from being administered by Missouri’s Department of Social Services to the education department in December. McGowin said the current number is closer to 23,000 children.Roughly 1,800 of Missouri’s 2,800 licensed and license-exempt providers, including school districts, are contracted to take children on subsidy, Pam Thomas, assistant commissioner for Missouri’s Office of Childhood, said at a State Board of Education meeting last month.&nbsp;“We do continue to struggle a bit with our vendor and meeting what our expectations are for an efficient and effective system and making clear what’s needed,” Thomas told the board. “And quite frankly the vendor is not delivering on those results to what I would say are our expectations as a department.”&nbsp;The vendor contracted to develop and implement the new system for the subsidy program is World Wide Technology, McGowin said, a large technology services provider headquartered in St. Louis.Board members expressed concerns with how to move forward as Thomas reassured them that her department was working “around the clock” to urge the vendor to fix the bugs in the system, which spans about nine steps between a family’s application for subsidy and payment to the provider.“We have to be cautious about how many more changes we add into the system right now,” she said. “ … We can bend it, but we certainly can’t break it, and I think we’re on the verge of that right now.”Yet this isn’t the first time the state’s handling of the subsidy program has caused widespread problems for providers and families.&nbsp;In 2021, the state blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and the rollout of a new system used to track attendance, called KinderConnect, for a&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2021/03/19/emails-show-months-long-backlog-of-payments-to-missouri-child-care-providers/">backlog of thousands of payments.</a>&nbsp;In spring 2023,&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/05/03/bureaucratic-hurdles-stymie-missouri-families-seeking-help-affording-child-care/">parents reported waiting several months&nbsp;</a>to be approved for the state assistance, leaving them struggling to juggle work and child care.&nbsp;State Sen. Lauren Arthur, a Democrat from Kansas City, said she was notified of the current spate of issues a few months ago by legislative staff who’d started hearing concerns from constituents.&nbsp;“It feels like way too much time has passed,” Arthur said. “I suspect that child care providers across the state have already closed as a result of these mistakes and it’s totally unacceptable when already providers are struggling. There are already not enough seats available for children who need them.”Asked last month if she was looking at alternative vendors ahead of the current multi-million dollar contract running out in December, Thomas, with the education department, said she wasn’t opposed.&nbsp;However, on Wednesday, McGowin, said the department is not currently planning on finding a new vendor. The subsidy payment issues – 60% of which came from technical issues, according to the state – are expected to be resolved by the end of July.&nbsp;Missouri pays providers for services after they’re performed, rather than in advance. This, coupled with the fact that providers are paid based on attendance rather than enrollment for children in the subsidy program, makes budgeting nearly impossible for providers who take low-income and foster children.“We’re really relying on the state and DESE to really prioritize solving these system challenges so providers can be paid quickly,” said Casey Hanson, director of outreach and engagement at the child advocacy nonprofit Kids Win Missouri.&nbsp;Hanson has spent hundreds of hours with child care providers over the past several years. She knows what’s at stake.“They’re some of the most resilient people,” she said. “They care about children, they care about the future of our state more than almost anyone.”<h2>‘Our own personal pandemic’</h2>Tina Mosley was among the providers who made the difficult decision to stop taking children on subsidy.&nbsp;For 28 years, she has owned and operated Our Daycare and Learning Center in St. Louis, which is licensed for 10 children. It sits in the Normandy school district where the median household income is less than $39,000, and more than 56% of students in public school have SNAP benefits, according to 2021 data from the&nbsp;<a href="https://nces.ed.gov/Programs/Edge/ACSDashboard/2922650" target="_blank">National Center for Education Statistics.</a>Every other provider she knows in the area accepts children on subsidy. And they’re all in the same predicament.“Every one of my colleagues and friends, the state is behind on paying them,” Mosley said. “To the right of me, to the left of me, across the street from me, behind me.”By only taking private paying families, and by ceasing to collect a salary, Mosley said she’s been able to continue employing her two staff, both of whom are young mothers. And while they no longer take children on subsidy, they still service lower income families, she said.&nbsp;As a result, she’s not left waiting on payments from the state. A handful of home and center-based providers she knows in the St. Louis area already closed because of the lag.Several months ago, when most of her children were from the subsidy program, she was helping parents sign up for state benefits as the system transitioned over. She recalls parents sharing screenshots of hold times on the phone with the state surpassing an hour before they had to hang up and return to work, unable to get the immediate help they needed.“Early child care right now, we feel like we’re in our own personal pandemic,” Mosley said.&nbsp;But unlike during the COVID-19 pandemic, when government bodies and communities showed up in stride to keep child care providers in business, Mosley said it feels like most people have now turned their backs.Luong Nichols, in Kansas City, has considered doing what Mosley has done: stop opening her services to families on subsidy.In an April email to a staffer in Arthur’s office, she lamented her situation. The system had two of her kids on subsidy listed as private pay. A glitch wouldn’t let her submit attendance. She hadn’t heard back on her help ticket.&nbsp;“I am due to renew child care subsidy next month and really considering not doing it,” she wrote in an email she shared with The Independent. “Payments are still not correct, they owe me all of February and past corrections. Now we are about to end March and that will be added.”After sending this email, Luong Nichols went on to interview at a local school district. She ultimately turned down the job offer, unable to part with the children in her care, including foster children, kids with behavioral difficulties and low-income children.“I have single moms and foster children that have been kicked out of other daycares or gone through many placements before they landed on my door. And the kids that I take care of, they’re like family.”Instead she continued to spend hours on the phone during nap time begging anyone to make her business whole again. She called the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the governor’s office. She even called the White House.&nbsp;“I’ve had to take on an extra load of work just to fight for something that I’m entitled to,” she said.&nbsp;As of Wednesday, she said her payments were caught up through May. She credited her persistence, and assistance from Arthur’s staff, for speeding up the payment.At the same time, Luong Nichols has seen three area centers and four private daycares shutter. She directs most of the blame at the department of education.“DESE has pushed the industry to the point of no return right now,” she said. ”We’re not going to have enough child care providers in the state of Missouri by the end of this year to take care of subsidy children.” She said it will move to private paying families only.&nbsp;Hanson, with Kids Win Missouri, said there isn’t currently enough data to know the reality of the child care landscape.&nbsp;In response to a Sunshine request submitted by The Independent last month, the education agency said they do not currently track the number of backlogged payment resolution requests.&nbsp;“The reality is, yeah, there are providers that will close,” Hanson said. “That’s why we continue to advocate that we need more state level funding in this space to really maintain a supply.”

Payment backlog leaves Mo. child care providers desperate, on the brink of closing

BROWN COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects on multiple allegations after a traffic stop.

Just after 11p.m. Monday, a&nbsp;Brown County Detective initiated a traffic stop in the vicinity of 210th&nbsp; on U.S. 73 Highway based on an expired registration, according to Sheriff John Merchant.&nbsp; 

The detective discovered that&nbsp; the driver of the vehicle identified as 50-year-old Daniel Jennings of Hiawatha had a suspended license.

The passenger in the vehicle 37-year-old Tara Hamilton of Huron had an&nbsp; outstanding&nbsp; FTA Warrant out of Atchison

The detective arrested Jennings on requested charges of Possession of Marijuana, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Driving While License Cancelled, Suspended or Revoked, No Proof on Insurance and Illegal Vehicle Registration.&nbsp; Hamilton was arrested on requested charges of Possession of Meth, Possession of Marijuana, Possession of Opiate and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia as well as the Warrant.&nbsp; &nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720035965300.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>BROWN COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects on multiple allegations after a traffic stop.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720036012385.png" alt="Jennings-photo Brown Co." />
 <figcaption>Jennings-photo Brown Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>Just after 11p.m. Monday, a&nbsp;Brown County Detective initiated a traffic stop in the vicinity of 210th&nbsp; on U.S. 73 Highway based on an expired registration, according to Sheriff John Merchant.&nbsp; The detective discovered that&nbsp; the driver of the vehicle identified as 50-year-old Daniel Jennings of Hiawatha had a suspended license.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720035887180.png" alt="Hamilton-photo Brown Co." />
 <figcaption>Hamilton-photo Brown Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>The passenger in the vehicle 37-year-old Tara Hamilton of Huron had an&nbsp; outstanding&nbsp; FTA Warrant out of AtchisonThe detective arrested Jennings on requested charges of Possession of Marijuana, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Driving While License Cancelled, Suspended or Revoked, No Proof on Insurance and Illegal Vehicle Registration.&nbsp; Hamilton was arrested on requested charges of Possession of Meth, Possession of Marijuana, Possession of Opiate and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia as well as the Warrant.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Wanted Kansas suspect caught transporting drugs

CLAY COUNTY —Two people died in an accident just after 3p.m. Wednesday in Clay County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Toyota Scion driven by Delmy A. Vasquez, 26, Kansas City, Kansas, was westbound on MO 92 at County Road A.

The driver failed to yield and rear-ended a 2012 Ford Fusion driven by Alex M. Morse, 18, Kearney, Missouri.

After impact the Toyota crossed into oncoming traffic and struck the side of an eastbound 2015 Bluebird Gallatin R-V school district bus driven by Rolla C. Joyce, 45, Gallatin, Missouri.&nbsp; A passenger in the back seat of the Toyota was ejected.

After striking the bus, the Toyota spun around and struck a westbound 2023 Ford Explorer driven by Kenneth H. Holmberg, 42, Smithville, Missouri.

A passenger in the Toyota Iris Vallares Barahona, Kansas City, Missouri, was pronounced dead at the scene.&nbsp; EMS transported a second passenger in the Toyota Griselda Rodriguez Apolinar, 32, Kansas City, Missouri, to Liberty Hospital where she died.

EMS also transported Vasquez Perez and two passengers in the school bus, a 15-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy, both from Gallatin, Missouri, to Liberty Hospital. There were no others transported for treatment.&nbsp;Vallares Barahona and was not wearing a seat belt, according to the MSHP.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720091491395.png" alt="First responders on the scene of the crash -photo courtesy KMBC TV" />
 <figcaption>First responders on the scene of the crash -photo courtesy KMBC TV</figcaption>
 </figure>CLAY COUNTY —Two people died in an accident just after 3p.m. Wednesday in Clay County.The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2014 Toyota Scion driven by Delmy A. Vasquez, 26, Kansas City, Kansas, was westbound on MO 92 at County Road A.The driver failed to yield and rear-ended a 2012 Ford Fusion driven by Alex M. Morse, 18, Kearney, Missouri.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720091459450.png" alt="Photo courtesy KMBC TV" />
 <figcaption>Photo courtesy KMBC TV</figcaption>
 </figure>After impact the Toyota crossed into oncoming traffic and struck the side of an eastbound 2015 Bluebird Gallatin R-V school district bus driven by Rolla C. Joyce, 45, Gallatin, Missouri.&nbsp; A passenger in the back seat of the Toyota was ejected.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720092326986.png" alt="Photo courtesy KMBC TV" />
 <figcaption>Photo courtesy KMBC TV</figcaption>
 </figure>After striking the bus, the Toyota spun around and struck a westbound 2023 Ford Explorer driven by Kenneth H. Holmberg, 42, Smithville, Missouri.A passenger in the Toyota Iris Vallares Barahona, Kansas City, Missouri, was pronounced dead at the scene.&nbsp; EMS transported a second passenger in the Toyota Griselda Rodriguez Apolinar, 32, Kansas City, Missouri, to Liberty Hospital where she died.EMS also transported Vasquez Perez and two passengers in the school bus, a 15-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy, both from Gallatin, Missouri, to Liberty Hospital. There were no others transported for treatment.&nbsp;Vallares Barahona and was not wearing a seat belt, according to the MSHP.

2 dead, 2 teens injured after crash involving Gallatin school bus

Even as you keep fireworks safety in mind, other safety
measures will make for an enjoyable Independence Day celebration.

American Red Cross spokeswoman Angie Springs says a little
time in preparation can make for a safe and fun 4th.

“So, the little things that we can do to hopefully make it
that much more enjoyable,” Springs tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “Again, we all
enjoy watching fireworks in the sky, watching those big nighttime displays. We
just want to make sure everyone is safe, because again this is a holiday to be
celebrated, not one that you’re then having to deal with an emergency.”

Many like to hit the lake, the river, or the pool during these
summer days.

Springs says it’s vitally important to keep an eye on the children.

“Want to make sure that they are supervised in or near that
water. Make sure that you’re paying attention to them,” Springs says. “So, put
your phones down, keep your eyes on the water, make sure that those young
children have proper floatation devises. So, those lifejackets, make sure that they
are being safe when they’re in and around that water.”

The simple act of paying attention pays big dividends.

“It’s those little things that we can do during this holiday
season to help keep everyone safe,” according to Springs. “We want everyone to
have a great time and, again, its America’s holiday, you want to be out on the
water, you want to be enjoying those fireworks. But the more that we can keep
in mind those safety tips, the better off we’re going be. So just make sure
that you’re aware at all times.”

Springs advises to keep an eye on the weather and to get out
of the water and get inside at the first sign of lightning. Keep hydrated on
hot summer days by drinking plenty of water and limiting alcohol.

Other safety tips from the American Red Cross include:

FIREWORKS
SAFETY&nbsp;The safest way to
enjoy fireworks is to attend a public firework show put on by professionals.
Many states outlaw most fireworks, especially in dry climates prone to forest
fires. Consider celebrating with glow sticks, noise makers or silly string
instead. If you are setting fireworks off at home, follow these safety steps:

WATER SAFETY&nbsp;Children and adults should learn to swim so
they at least&nbsp;achieve the skills of water competency: be able to enter the water, get a breath,
stay afloat, change position, swim a distance and &nbsp;get out of the water
safely. Whether swimming in a pool, at the beach or visiting a waterpark,
always swim in an area where lifeguards are on duty.

BEACH SAFETY&nbsp;If you plan to swim in the ocean, a lake or
river, be aware that swimming in these environments is different than swimming
in a pool. Be sure you have the skills for these environments.

WATER PARK
SAFETY&nbsp;Wear protective
clothing, including a hat and some kind of cover-up for when you’ve had enough
sun. Use sunscreen before leaving home and reapply during the day.

By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostEven as you keep fireworks safety in mind, other safety
measures will make for an enjoyable Independence Day celebration.American Red Cross spokeswoman Angie Springs says a little
time in preparation can make for a safe and fun 4th.“So, the little things that we can do to hopefully make it
that much more enjoyable,” Springs tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “Again, we all
enjoy watching fireworks in the sky, watching those big nighttime displays. We
just want to make sure everyone is safe, because again this is a holiday to be
celebrated, not one that you’re then having to deal with an emergency.”Many like to hit the lake, the river, or the pool during these
summer days.Springs says it’s vitally important to keep an eye on the children.“Want to make sure that they are supervised in or near that
water. Make sure that you’re paying attention to them,” Springs says. “So, put
your phones down, keep your eyes on the water, make sure that those young
children have proper floatation devises. So, those lifejackets, make sure that they
are being safe when they’re in and around that water.”The simple act of paying attention pays big dividends.“It’s those little things that we can do during this holiday
season to help keep everyone safe,” according to Springs. “We want everyone to
have a great time and, again, its America’s holiday, you want to be out on the
water, you want to be enjoying those fireworks. But the more that we can keep
in mind those safety tips, the better off we’re going be. So just make sure
that you’re aware at all times.”Springs advises to keep an eye on the weather and to get out
of the water and get inside at the first sign of lightning. Keep hydrated on
hot summer days by drinking plenty of water and limiting alcohol.Other safety tips from the American Red Cross include:FIREWORKS
SAFETY&nbsp;The safest way to
enjoy fireworks is to attend a public firework show put on by professionals.
Many states outlaw most fireworks, especially in dry climates prone to forest
fires. Consider celebrating with glow sticks, noise makers or silly string
instead. If you are setting fireworks off at home, follow these safety steps:<ul>
 <li>Never give fireworks to small children,
 and never throw or point a firework toward people, animals, vehicles,
 structures or flammable materials.</li><li>Always follow the instructions on the
 packaging.</li><li>Keep a supply of water close by as a
 precaution.</li><li>Make sure the person lighting fireworks
 always wears eye protection.</li><li>Light only one firework at a time and
 never attempt to relight "a dud."</li><li>Store fireworks in a cool, dry place away
 from children and pets.</li>
 </ul>WATER SAFETY&nbsp;Children and adults should learn to swim so
they at least&nbsp;achieve the skills of water competency: be able to enter the water, get a breath,
stay afloat, change position, swim a distance and &nbsp;get out of the water
safely. Whether swimming in a pool, at the beach or visiting a waterpark,
always swim in an area where lifeguards are on duty.<ul>
 <li>Watch the weather and get out at the first
 sign of lightning or rumble of thunder. Stay indoors and away from water
 for 30 minutes after the last lightning flashes or thunder roars.</li><li>Provide close and constant attention to
 children you are supervising in or near water.</li><li>Fence pools and spas with adequate
 barriers, including four-sided fencing.</li><li>Children, inexperienced swimmers, and all
 boaters should wear properly fitted U.S. Coast Guard-approved life
 jackets.</li>
 </ul>BEACH SAFETY&nbsp;If you plan to swim in the ocean, a lake or
river, be aware that swimming in these environments is different than swimming
in a pool. Be sure you have the skills for these environments.<ul>
 <li>Make sure you swim sober and that you
 always swim with a buddy. Know your limitations and make sure you have
 enough energy to swim back to shore.</li><li>Protect your neck — don’t dive headfirst.
 Walk carefully into open waters. Watch out for and avoid aquatic life.</li><li>If you are caught in a rip current, try
 not to panic. Signal to those on shore that you need assistance. Swim
 parallel to the shore until you are out of the current. Once you are free,
 swim toward shore. If you can't swim to the shore, float or tread water
 until you are free of the rip current and then head toward shore.</li>
 </ul>WATER PARK
SAFETY&nbsp;Wear protective
clothing, including a hat and some kind of cover-up for when you’ve had enough
sun. Use sunscreen before leaving home and reapply during the day.<ul>
 <li>Parents — keep an eye on the kids. If they
 can’t swim or are less than four feet tall, have them wear a U.S. Coast
 Guard approved life jacket.</li><li>Signal a lifeguard if you see someone is
 in trouble. Yell if you need to grab attention, but don’t go in after the
 person yourself.</li><li>Set up a meeting place in case someone
 gets separated from your group. Use the buddy system to make sure no child
 is alone.</li>
 </ul>You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.

Have an enjoyable, and safe, Independence Day

CLINTON COUNTY —One person was injured in an accident just before 7:30a.m. Wednesday in Clinton County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Mercedes Benz driven by Ryan D. Keefer, 18, Lathrop, was westbound on Route V four miles southeast of Lathrop.

The vehicle traveled off the right side of the road, struck a culvert, became airborne, struck the ground and rolled.

&nbsp;Holt ambulance transported Keefer to Liberty Hospital. He was properly restrained, according to the MSHP.

CLINTON COUNTY —One person was injured in an accident just before 7:30a.m. Wednesday in Clinton County.The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2010 Mercedes Benz driven by Ryan D. Keefer, 18, Lathrop, was westbound on Route V four miles southeast of Lathrop.The vehicle traveled off the right side of the road, struck a culvert, became airborne, struck the ground and rolled.&nbsp;Holt ambulance transported Keefer to Liberty Hospital. He was properly restrained, according to the MSHP.

Mo. teen hospitalized after car goes airborne, overturns

Fourth of July will bring several travelers out for their holiday plans and the Missouri Highway Patrol says to be careful.  

Seargent Shane Hux with Troop H says as you hit the road, be sure to plan ahead with increased traffic and more construction happening.  

"Look for slower moving vehicles, whether that be pickups pulling campers, boats that are going to be out there being pulled by pickups," Hux tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "So just allow (time), there's going to be some congestion out there in areas due to the construction, there's going to be traffic crashes so there's going to be lane blockages, things like that." 

While traveling for the Fourth of July, the Missouri Highway Patrol advises to be aware of extra distractions on the roads. 

Hux says if you see fireworks as you're traveling you want to watch, be sure to pull off the road.  

"We never recommend just stopping on the shoulder of the interstate or two-lane highway to get out and look at these," Hux explains.  "Find a safe location where you can get out and enjoy those." 

And Hux also says to be sure as you're traveling, to never fire any fireworks out of a vehicle, or out of a boat if you're on the water 

"Make sure you're in a designated area, make sure children are supervised when they are shooting these fireworks, and by all means do not discharge those from a motor vehicle when you're going up and down the highway," Hux says. 

The highway patrol will be out in full force starting at 6pm tonight through Sunday just before midnight. 

By MATT PIKE St. Joseph Post Fourth of July will bring several travelers out for their holiday plans and the Missouri Highway Patrol says to be careful. Seargent Shane Hux with Troop H says as you hit the road, be sure to plan ahead with increased traffic and more construction happening. "Look for slower moving vehicles, whether that be pickups pulling campers, boats that are going to be out there being pulled by pickups," Hux tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "So just allow (time), there's going to be some congestion out there in areas due to the construction, there's going to be traffic crashes so there's going to be lane blockages, things like that." While traveling for the Fourth of July, the Missouri Highway Patrol advises to be aware of extra distractions on the roads. Hux says if you see fireworks as you're traveling you want to watch, be sure to pull off the road. "We never recommend just stopping on the shoulder of the interstate or two-lane highway to get out and look at these," Hux explains. "Find a safe location where you can get out and enjoy those." And Hux also says to be sure as you're traveling, to never fire any fireworks out of a vehicle, or out of a boat if you're on the water "Make sure you're in a designated area, make sure children are supervised when they are shooting these fireworks, and by all means do not discharge those from a motor vehicle when you're going up and down the highway," Hux says. The highway patrol will be out in full force starting at 6pm tonight through Sunday just before midnight.

Missouri State Highway Patrol says drive safely this Fourth of July

As people pull their grills out this summer for cookouts and barbecues, there's an unknown danger that Mosaic Life Care wants them to be aware of. 

Dr. Cythia Brownfield with Mosaic says people should avoid using wire brushes to clean off the grill after cooking.  Brownfield says there's a danger of the wire bristles breaking off and getting into your food. 

"And end up having it lodged into their throat, or even worse swallowing it into their stomach, it can actually penetrate through your intestines and cause significant disease, possibly even death, and usually it requires a surgical emergency to correct it," Brownfield tells reporters. "These can break off very easily, they're hard to see." 

Brownfield says instead of those brushes, there are other options, including brushes that have coils rather than bristles. 

"There's also ones that are stone," Brownfield explains. "There are some that can melt, so you have to be careful that if you're cleaning your grill when it's hot you have to make sure that that grill brush is safe to use on a hot grill, also you can even just use your regular spatula that you flip your burgers with and use that to scrub."

Brownfield says approximately 130 cases a year have been reported, but it could be far more because of being under reported. 

Brownfield says while the number of cases reported may seem low, it's a problem that can easily be solved 

"So even though it's rare, the same thing we look at with consumre safety products, sometimes these injuries can be rare but if they're easily fixed, it's the right thing to do to make that shift," Brownfield says. 

Brownfield says cases became more prevalent as more people during the pandemic cooked at home and out on the grill. 

You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720018845893.jpeg" alt="Dr. Cynthia Brownfield talks to the media about the danger of using wire brushes on your grill/ Photo by Matt Pike" />
 <figcaption>Dr. Cynthia Brownfield talks to the media about the danger of using wire brushes on your grill/ Photo by Matt Pike</figcaption>
 </figure>By MATT PIKE St. Joseph Post As people pull their grills out this summer for cookouts and barbecues, there's an unknown danger that Mosaic Life Care wants them to be aware of. Dr. Cythia Brownfield with Mosaic says people should avoid using wire brushes to clean off the grill after cooking. Brownfield says there's a danger of the wire bristles breaking off and getting into your food. "And end up having it lodged into their throat, or even worse swallowing it into their stomach, it can actually penetrate through your intestines and cause significant disease, possibly even death, and usually it requires a surgical emergency to correct it," Brownfield tells reporters. "These can break off very easily, they're hard to see." Brownfield says instead of those brushes, there are other options, including brushes that have coils rather than bristles. "There's also ones that are stone," Brownfield explains. "There are some that can melt, so you have to be careful that if you're cleaning your grill when it's hot you have to make sure that that grill brush is safe to use on a hot grill, also you can even just use your regular spatula that you flip your burgers with and use that to scrub."<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720018972144.jpeg" alt="Wire brushes (bottom right) should not be used on your grill for danger of bristles breaking off, like the bristle featured just above, instead you should use a brush like the one on the left/ Photo by Matt Pike, " />
 <figcaption>Wire brushes (bottom right) should not be used on your grill for danger of bristles breaking off, like the bristle featured just above, instead you should use a brush like the one on the left/ Photo by Matt Pike, </figcaption>
 </figure>Brownfield says approximately 130 cases a year have been reported, but it could be far more because of being under reported. Brownfield says while the number of cases reported may seem low, it's a problem that can easily be solved "So even though it's rare, the same thing we look at with consumre safety products, sometimes these injuries can be rare but if they're easily fixed, it's the right thing to do to make that shift," Brownfield says. Brownfield says cases became more prevalent as more people during the pandemic cooked at home and out on the grill. You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.

There may be a hidden danger in cleaning your BBQ grill

A veteran Savannah police officer has been placed on administrative
leave while an investigation into the death of Savannah K-9 Horus continues.

Lieutenant Daniel Zeigler, Horus' handler, has been suspended with pay while
the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigates the circumstances surrounding
the death of the police dog last week.

Some Savannah residents gathered for a candlelight vigil
Sunday to honor K-9 Horus and have complained that Savannah officials buried
Horus without honors.

The Savannah Police Department has only acknowledged that K-9
Horus died after an overnight shift without giving any specifics about the
cause of death.

By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostA veteran Savannah police officer has been placed on administrative
leave while an investigation into the death of Savannah K-9 Horus continues.Lieutenant Daniel Zeigler, Horus' handler, has been suspended with pay while
the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigates the circumstances surrounding
the death of the police dog last week.Some Savannah residents gathered for a candlelight vigil
Sunday to honor K-9 Horus and have complained that Savannah officials buried
Horus without honors.The Savannah Police Department has only acknowledged that K-9
Horus died after an overnight shift without giving any specifics about the
cause of death.You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.

Savannah officer suspended as investigation into K9's death continues

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/ghills/">GRACE HILLS</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>

HOLTON — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Tuesday praised Republican Sen. Dennis Pyle’s work to sustain Kelly’s vetoes of earlier tax-cut packages to create a bipartisan compromise.

Kelly said that while she was in the Senate, she watched Pyle, of Hiawatha, “work tirelessly” for 10 years to eliminate a state income tax on Social Security.

State taxes will be&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2024/06/21/gov-kelly-signs-tax-reduction-bill-passed-with-bipartisan-majorities-in-special-session/">reduced by $1.2 billion</a>&nbsp;through income and property tax cuts over the next three years. Kansas was one of 12 states to tax Social Security income. Kelly and Pyle worked together to eliminate that tax, which will save Kansas seniors more than $150 million in the first year, Pyle said.&nbsp;

Kelly and Pyle appeared together in Hiawatha and Holton to promote the bill and for a ceremonial bill signing. Both cities are in Pyle’s distinct. Kelly said they chose the cities to recognize Pyle’s work. After three vetoes of previous plans, Kelly approved a tax-cut package passed on the June 18 special session.&nbsp;

Pyle said his constituents are concerned with “ever-increasing” property taxes. A provision of the special session bill will exempt the first $75,000 of a home’s value from the statewide mill levy, compared with the current exemption of $42,000.

“I would like to see more property tax relief for all property types,” Pyle said. “But I appreciate Gov. Kelly for prioritizing property tax cuts.”

Kelly vetoed previous tax cuts proposals that were more expensive.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1720006711563.png" alt="Gov. Laura Kelly ceremonially signs the tax-cut bill in Holton on July 2 as Sen. Dennis Pyle watches. “You’re looking at 20 years of hard work,” Kelly said (Grace Hills/Kansas Reflector)." />
 <figcaption>Gov. Laura Kelly ceremonially signs the tax-cut bill in Holton on July 2 as Sen. Dennis Pyle watches. “You’re looking at 20 years of hard work,” Kelly said (Grace Hills/Kansas Reflector).</figcaption>
 </figure>BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/ghills/">GRACE HILLS</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>HOLTON — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Tuesday praised Republican Sen. Dennis Pyle’s work to sustain Kelly’s vetoes of earlier tax-cut packages to create a bipartisan compromise.Kelly said that while she was in the Senate, she watched Pyle, of Hiawatha, “work tirelessly” for 10 years to eliminate a state income tax on Social Security.State taxes will be&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2024/06/21/gov-kelly-signs-tax-reduction-bill-passed-with-bipartisan-majorities-in-special-session/">reduced by $1.2 billion</a>&nbsp;through income and property tax cuts over the next three years. Kansas was one of 12 states to tax Social Security income. Kelly and Pyle worked together to eliminate that tax, which will save Kansas seniors more than $150 million in the first year, Pyle said.&nbsp;Kelly and Pyle appeared together in Hiawatha and Holton to promote the bill and for a ceremonial bill signing. Both cities are in Pyle’s distinct. Kelly said they chose the cities to recognize Pyle’s work. After three vetoes of previous plans, Kelly approved a tax-cut package passed on the June 18 special session.&nbsp;The bill took effect July 1.&nbsp;Pyle said his constituents are concerned with “ever-increasing” property taxes. A provision of the special session bill will exempt the first $75,000 of a home’s value from the statewide mill levy, compared with the current exemption of $42,000.“I would like to see more property tax relief for all property types,” Pyle said. “But I appreciate Gov. Kelly for prioritizing property tax cuts.”Kelly vetoed previous tax cuts proposals that were more expensive.&nbsp;Pyle “stuck with me to sustain those vetoes until we got a package that really eliminated the Social Security tax and some other things, but also left enough in the coffers for us to be able to pay our bills and fully fund our schools,” Kelly saidThe governor and lawmakers, sitting on a $3 billion surplus, were eager to cut taxes during an election year. GOP leaders originally introduced a flax tax plan, replacing the state’s three-tier income tax system with a single rate. Kelly vetoed that plan after an&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2024/03/13/new-kansas-flat-tax-proposal-would-mainly-benefit-states-top-20-of-earners-analysis-shows/">analysis showed</a>&nbsp;it would mainly benefit the state’s top 20% of wage earners. The governor and legislative leaders eventually compromised on a plan that establishes a two-tier income tax structure, despite concerns that it still benefits higher wage earners.&nbsp;“It wasn’t easy,” Kelly said. “Legislative leadership made multiple attempts at unsustainable tax cuts that would eventually set us back to an era of crumbling roads and bridges and crippling debt.”Mike Pirner, spokesman for Senate President Ty Masterson, and Carrie Rahfaldt, spokeswoman for House Speaker Dan Hawkins, didn’t respond to requests to comment for this story.Kelly said in her time in the Senate, “all people talked about” was property tax. Kelly said she would have preferred more property tax cuts. She said that could be discussed during next year’s session.“I’m not sure the state could do much more,” Kelly said. “So we’d have to look for avenues. But we have to wait till the numbers come in.”