Representative David Wood Archives

Missouri to ramp up COVID-19 testing next week but who’s paying for it?

May 21, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

State officials hope to complete about 7,500 coronavirus tests daily starting next week. During today’s briefing, Gov. Mike Parson says the plan will focus on three main testing strategies – box-in outbreaks, sentinel testing, and community sampling.

“This will allow us to keep the virus contained by identifying and isolating additional positive cases as quickly as possible,” says Parson. “Once our testing numbers are up, we will be able to re-evaluate and determine what is needed moving forward. The more testing we do, the more knowledge we have on what the situation in Missouri actually looks like and the better equipped we are to move forward.”

Gov. Mike Parson

The box-in approach will target long-term care sites, including nursing homes and assisted living centers for senior citizens, by testing staff and residents facility-wide. The goal with this strategy is to identify and isolate additional positive cases as quickly as possible. By “boxing-in” outbreaks in these places, this strategy aims to keep the virus contained and prevent further spreading.

Parson says 163 Missouri long-term care centers have had at least one COVID-19 case.

Sentinel testing is planned for next week at state-operated veterans nursing homes, prisons, and mental health centers in 28 counties over a ten-day period. Performing the periodic testing helps to identify and isolate not only symptomatic individuals but also asymptomatic individuals to keep them from unknowingly spreading the virus within the facility.

Community test sampling is also planned next week in six counties over ten days, including in Boone, Cape Girardeau, Greene, Jackson, Jefferson, and St. Charles. State Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams says election for community sampling is based on locations with the ability to draw participants from a broader region as well as locations that have expressed a need for additional testing resources. It is not based on the number of COVID-19 cases in these counties.

Community sampling is intended to give the state a better sense of COVID-19 prevalence in a given area to help guide its response and ease uncertainty. Parson says if prevalence is low, this will help reassure citizens that it is safe to begin re-engaging in the community and returning to somewhat normal operations. If prevalence is higher, Parson says steps will be taken to keep the virus from spreading further in the community but did not elaborate on what this would look like.

How’s the testing being paid for?

“All the testing is pretty well right now going to be paid out of the CARES Act for COVID-19,” says Parson. “There’s a lot of money on the local levels for testing – that’s what we’re really emphasizing that money they’re sending out. So the local levels are going to be responsible too. The state is not going to come in and do their testing for them for free. If they have the funds and the resources to do it, whether it be the counties or the health departments, they’re going to have to help with that. Number two, when we go looking kind of in the private sector when we’re going around there, if the companies have the ability to pay for it through the insurance companies, they’re going to have to pay for that also.”

Due to a glitch, Kansas City has been left empty-handed when it comes to federal coronavirus funding and its corresponding counties don’t seem to want to play ball and share the aid Washington sent to them. Parson says he’s willing to help with testing in Kansas City, but he doesn’t want to open up a can of worms.

“We’re not going to get in the middle of turf battles up there. I mean that’s an issue up there between the counties and the city and that region,” says Parson. “So I’m not sure if that’s my place to fight that battle. We’re here in a support role to help them. I don’t think the state is here to take over the local levels and tell them what to do and what not to do.”

On Thursday, an informal group appointed by the governor to advise him how to spend CARES Act funding coming into the state held a public meeting. State Representative David Wood, R-Versailles, takes issue with local health departments footing the bill for testing services through local CARES ACT funding.

“Basically, you have no plans of sending money down, even though they are doing your work and they are funded through you, you’re having them compete for the dollars that are sent to the county,” asks Wood. “I’ve made that point in budget committee numbers of times that if Health and Senior Services is receiving additional funds from COVID money, whatever pot it’s coming from and they are not passing on to the people doing the work, that to me is … (mumbled expletive).”

State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick says Missouri has about $1.5 billion in federal funding to work with after buying personal protective equipment for state health and frontline workers.

State House backs plan requiring Alzheimer’s support group in every Missouri county

March 4, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

State Rep. Don Rone, R-Portageville, speaks on the Missouri House floor on May 14, 2019 in Jefferson City (photos courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

Missouri could have an Alzheimer’s support group in every county. The state House has passed a bipartisan plan that would require one in each Missouri county. The requirement was added to a bill that would create a 25-member statewide Alzheimer’s task force to assess the current and future impact of Alzheimer’s disease on Missourians. The panel would be charged with reviewing the existing services and resources available to such patients and their caregivers.

Representative Don Rone, R-Portageville, fought back tears while asking House members to endorse the provision.

Representative David Wood, R-Versailles

“In my county, we don’t have a support group. And I’m sure that other rural counties do not have support groups,” Rone says. “I think it’s very important that not just the person that has Alzheimer’s, but the caretakers, have a place to go and know what’s going to happen.”

Bill sponsor, David Wood, R-Versailles, says fourteen members of his wife’s family have had Alzheimer’s and dementia over the last 25 years.

“To ask that every county just provide a support group, which can be as simple as having the community health center provide a space for these family members to share their experiences and have someone help them through this, is a very small ask,” says Wood.

Rep. Barbara Washington, D-Kansas City

Representative Barbara Washington, D-Kansas City, says she and family members take turns traveling back and forth to a small community in Saline County to care for a loved one with the disease.

Under Wood’s bill, the task force would be made up of state officials, representatives from the medical community, individuals with the disease and the caregiver, law enforcement, among others.

The measure, House Bill 1683, heads to the Senate.

Missouri House advances proposed creation of Alzheimer’s task force

February 25, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Representative David Wood (courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

The Missouri House of Representatives has given initial approval to the formation of a task force about Alzheimer’s disease. State Representative David Wood, R-Versailles, is proposing to launch a 25-member panel to assess the current and future impact of Alzheimer’s disease on Missourians. The group would review the existing services and resources available to such patients and their caregivers. Members would also recommend how to respond to what Wood refers to as an escalating public health crisis.

The task force would be made up of state officials, representatives from the medical community, individuals with the disease and the caregiver, law enforcement, among others.

During floor debate Monday, Wood revealed that he has had 14 family members with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Rep. Barbara Washington, D-Kansas City, said she and family members travel weekly to Saline County to visit a loved one with the disease.

Rep. Done Rone (Photo courtesy; Tim Bommel)

Representative Don Rone, R- Portageville, fought back tears as he proposed a requirement to have an Alzheimer’s support group in every Missouri county. Rone was successful in his amendment to the bill.

No one spoke in opposition to the proposal.

The measure, House Bill 1683, needs one more favorable vote to the head to the Senate for consideration.

State urges Missouri parents who lost Medicaid to re-apply kids for coverage

February 21, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The state wants Missouri parents who have had their Medicaid coverage cancelled to fill out an application and see if their kids still qualify. The request applies to those who have lost coverage since August 2018.

Representative David Wood (courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

State Representative David Wood, R-Versailles, says about 120,000 Missourians are no longer getting Medicaid due to a federal healthcare law change and an improving economy. But he says about 90,000 of those are children who are probably still eligible for coverage through the Children’s Health Insurance Program commonly called CHIP.

“Now did the Department (of Social Services) do a very good job of explaining that when they gave the cancellation of their coverage? Probably not. We could’ve done better,” says Wood, who heads a House budget committee involving social services. “Our enrollment processes could be easier. Our phone center could do a better job of answering calls, but we’re not in the business of taking off people that are covered just trying to save money. We want to cover everybody that qualifies.”

Missouri’s Medicaid budget is about $10 billion, accounting for more than one-third of the state’s $30 billion operating budget.

Wood says the Department of Social Services’ issues should not be viewed as a big conspiracy.

“It’s not that the Governor Nixon administration put on a whole bunch of kids because they could or the Governor Parson administration has taken them off just to try and save money. The reality is we had a lot of applications come in. We didn’t do a good job of verifying the incomes. We are now verifying the incomes and doing a better job so those people are dropping off the rolls. But if they’d re-apply under a different category, some of them would still be covered.”

Missourians can re-apply online, by calling the state Department of Social Services, or by going to an office in your county.

During a press conference this week, House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, says she wants Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, to freeze cancellations of Medicaid coverage until she says the matter is cleared up.

“After a year of work on this issue and with a bipartisan desire for action, we have the chance during the coming weeks to do right by Missouri’s children and I hope the Republican leadership will make this a priority,” says Quade. “Pausing this disenrollment is vital to making sure that we can figure out exactly what is going on. We need to be doing everything in our power to make sure that those kids who qualify have healthcare coverage.”

Rep. Deb Lavender, D-Kirkwood, says the state should automatically re-enroll the kids affected.

“Why we are asking the parents to pick up for our mistake doesn’t make sense to me. We know that 300 kids were put back on without any hesitation and yet the overall number is still down,” she says. “If we know children who’ve been kick off are being put on almost automatically once there’s a process, then why are the numbers still going down? I think more children have been kicked off of healthcare than we realize.”

Missourinet asked Parson’s office for a response yesterday, but one was not given by deadline time.

Wood says Missouri’s process to enroll should be simplified. The state’s public assistance application is 63 pages – making it the second longest in the country.

A company is reviewing Missouri’s enrollment measures and releasing its results to the state this month. Wood says then the work will begin to make changes.

Meanwhile, State Representative Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, is proposing to reduce the enrollment paperwork to one page. A House committee unanimously passed her bill this week. House Bill 1960 heads to another committee for consideration.

View state data about the number of Missourians receiving public assistance.