Season's greetings! Our last newsletter was in August. What's happened since? It's been a busy fall:

• We had another successful Fall CME meeting in Wichita, thanks to all the hard work by CME planning committee chaired by Dr. Bob Wittler and committee members, Dr. Brenda Issa and Dr. Stephanie Kuhlmann. 
• Chris Steege, Mel Hudelson, and I completed KAAP's annual report - now due at AAP headquarters.   As we finished the report, I was reminded of all the things that the KAAP does for Kansas kids by working with you on things like immunization, developmental screening, fluoride varnish, KidLink, and TAP-TAM.
• Wichita pediatricians worked hard to pass a law to get fluoride into Wichita's city water. A big thank you to Dr. Larry Hund, Dr. Rebecca Reddy and Dr. Gretchen Homanwho worked hard on this campaign.  Although the law was not passed this time, advocacy on this issue will continue.
• Dr. Pam Shaw and Dr. Dennis Cooley traveled to Washington D.C. to attend a meeting of the AAP Committee on State Government Affairs and the Committee on Federal Government Affairs.

The coming year promises to be interesting. The election is over and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will be the law of the land for at least the next four years. The ACA does much to protect children, but there are likely to be challenges. There are also serious budget problems in Kansas, with the most recent budget deficit estimated at 295 million dollars. And the Children's Initiative Fund, which has funded many programs important to children, is expected to suffer a substantial budget cut.  For more on this, see:  

http://www.khi.org/news/2012/dec/03/childrens-cabinet-sets-spending-priorities/

What does all this mean for pediatricians and for Kansas kids? In the near future:

• Our Governor and legislature will need to decide if Kansas will choose to accept Medicaid expansion.
• Traditional Medicaid, as we have known it, will change to managed Medicaid called KanCare.
• Under the ACA, and independent of the decision on Medicaid expansion, Medicaid reimbursement rates are to rise to Medicare reimbursement rates. As in other states, it is not clear that Kansas is prepared for the start date of January 1, 2013.
• KAAP will be sending a special e-mail communication to its members before the end of the year on some important issues effecting Kansas pediatricians and families. This special edition will feature articles on, KanCare, Increased Medicaid Payments, Health Insurance Exchanges, and Medicaid Expansion.

Since it's nearly the New Year, I find it's time to make New Year's Resolutions.   Some of which I make every year, but some of which I really resolve to do this year...As President of the KAAP, I hope to work with our talented BOD and staff to:

• Translate the science of early child and brain development to Kansas policymakers.   Last year at the AAP NCE we heard Dr. Bob Block, AAP Immediate Past President talk about the Heckman Equation which shows that the highest rate of return on investment is in early childhood programs:   (www.heckmanequation.org/heckman-equation). So advocating for early childhood programs - parenting support, literacy, early childhood programs - is not only the right thing to do, but the economically smart thing to do.   The Governor recently established a Task Force on Child Poverty, and we hope to be a resource to that committee.
• Increase membership value through not only our programs, but through new efforts such as Maintenance of Certification. We will be contacting other Chapters to learn about their MOC (Part 4) efforts, and expect to launch an MOC project around immunization in 2013.
• Learn to use social media more effectively (now that I almost have our electronic medical record figured out), both to promote what it is we do, and to more effectively recruit Young Physicians.

I hope that you resolve to be even more active in the KAAP Chapter in 2013. With all the challenges to budgets and programs, we need more voices for Kansas kids.   Best wishes for the New Year!