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Healthy Kansans2026-07-21T15:23:11-05:00

About this Collection Healthy Kansans contains interviews of individuals who were involved with development and implementation of state health policy from the 1970s through the early decades of the 2000s. Kansas saw a decline in its standing in the America’s Health Rankings over the last 30 years.  These interviews seek to understand why Kansas fell from 8th healthiest in the Nation to 31st.   Although there has been some improvement in recent years, Kansas is still in the bottom third of states.  While specific measures of health in Kansas may have improved over that time, the progress we have made has not been as significant or as fast as in other states. The result is that our overall ranking has declined more than any other state over the last 30 years.

What did we learn?  Health is dependent on more than just good healthcare – it is impacted by nutrition, social conditions, poverty, even the zipcode where you live. The social determinants of health must be considered by policymakers if they wish to improve the Health of Kansans.  Paying more attention to  public health efforts could raise the state-by-state rankings.   Using county health rankings might be a good way to stimulate discussion among legislators and community leaders about improving Health.

Picture of Matt All

Interview of Matthew (Matt) All, April 21, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
This is a very important interview in this series about Healthy Kansans because it embraces the discussion on health care financing. It is also interesting because of All's experiences in the political arena that led him to his current role as CEO of one of the state's largest health care insurers. He was involved with the proposed merger of Anthem and Blue Cross when he worked for Gov. Sebelius who turned down the merger. He said, "It became really clear to me at the beginning that this was an important office, and that Kansans sometimes in Show Morethe biggests moments of their lives need somebody to stand beside them. So, I was proud to do the work!" The largest part of the interview is a discussion on how health insurance works, how costs affect premiums, and what the options for the future hold. Despite the difficulties in finding ways to control costs, Mr. All is optimistic about the future. Show Less

Interview of Benjamin Anderson, May 7, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
Benjamin Anderson is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System where he is responsible for the management, direction and coordination of all organization operations. He is a great story-teller and his personal story about his experiences getting into college and later gaining entry into the health care system shows his determination and creativity toward solving problems. He rescued failing Kansas rural hospitals in Ashland and Lakin by figuring out how to engage these communities and provide services that people needed. His story about organizing a basketball game to pay for mammograms for women Show Moreis inspiring and unusual. When asked if this was a role of a hospital administrator he replied, "It is the role of a leader." Anderson described his reaching out to Somalian immigrants who worked at Tyson's Food Processing plant. That outreach led to strategies to engage the community and deal with all sorts of community attitudes towards the immigrants. His philosophy was, "Pick one meaningful thing to measure that brings about meaningful change, lowers costs, and improves outcomes. Show them how you did it and they will run to you. Don't wait on the feds to solve your problems. You solve them." After spending six and a half years in rural southwest Kansas, Anderson made a decision to leave and work for the Colorado Hospital Association for four years in order to get specialized services for one of his children. He was recruited to come to Hutchinson because the hospital needed to make some changes. Anderson is now meeting those challenges with creativity and energy.

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

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Interview of Tom Bell, March 6, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
Tom Bell served as CEO of the Kansas Hospital Association from 2012 - 2020 when he retired. As the leader of the trade association representing Kansas hospitals, he provided education and advocacy for the 120 hospitals that were his association's members. Bell describes his work mainly as advocating for hospitals in the Kansas Legislature and with the Kansas Congressional Delegation on federal issues. During his interview he identifies several big state issues that impacted his members: Certificate of Need, scope of practice, rural hospitals, medicaid expansion and reimbursements (DRGs). The passage of the Critical Access Hospital Show Morelegislation saved a lot of hospitals and helped solve some problems. Bell said he was constantly looking for ways to balance the competing interests of all the parts of the health care system. He also noted the COVID pandemic had huge, negative impacts that are still being felt. The interview looks at the advantages or disadvantage of being a non-profit hospital vs a for-profit model. It also discussed the need for a state health planning agency to set policy. In response to the question, what are the "top issues that you think we as a state need to be addressing right now for the well-being of hospitals... and the community", Bell indicated workforce was at the top of the list as well as reimbursement and how to help the community access the best level of health care. He concluded the interview by saying, "...what's good for the hospital ought to be what's good for a particular community." Show Less

Interview of Kari Bruffett, May 5, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
This interview contains substantive discussions about health policy changes that have been occurring the last 25 years. Interviewer Bob St. Peter explores Bruffett's interesting career, mostly in Kansas, mostly in health policy, although she started in Washington DC working for Senator Nancy Kassebaum during her final two years in the Senate. Bruffett then joined the staff of newly elected Rep. Jerry Moran, but after 4 years was ready to return to Kansas. She worked with Koch Industries before becoming the Executive Director of the Kansas Republican Party for 4 years. She went to the University Show Moreof Kansas Hospital Authority which was in the middle of a huge transition and navigating its relationship with the medical school. After those years she turned to state government. working on numerous issues such as Medicaid expansion estimates and KanCare. She was asked to be Secretary of the Department for Aging and Disability Services - KDADS. She ended up at the Kansas Health Institute, following St. Peter after he retired. Show Less

Interview of Susan Concannon, June 4, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
This interview really focuses on Susan Concannon's interest in health issues. She discusses managed care, who is on Medicaid, what are the eligibility requirements and who the expansion of Medicaid would impact. She offers some ideas about why the issue never passed-- the woodwork effect, the transition to managed care. She was always a proponent. "I wasn’t really treated as an outcast, but I knew that I differed from many of my Republican colleagues on committee." Concannon was removed from her position as Vice Chair of the House Health Committee as a punishment for her Show Morevotes supporting Medicaid expansion. She noted that the reasons not to vote for expansion changed over time: fiscal note too large; Congress will repeal; waiting list for the I/DD PD was too long; Catholic Church's position on abortion. The interview also explores her views on the national health rankings that have declined for Kansas. She strongly believe that Kansas' decline has been "because of the cuts that we made in social services and with not expanding Medicaid. Access to care is such an issue ... I would guess that the reason we popped back up a little bit is the work that we’ve done in the mental health arena and then the new hospital designation." Show Less

Excerpt of Interview with Jim Denning, April 13, 2023, “How Medicaid Expansion Died in the Senate”

Jim Denning served in the Kansas Senate as Majority Leader for four years during most of the time Medicaid Expansion was under discussion. Denning didn’t like the way the bills were constructed, so he developed a Republican alternative that he thought would be a model for the country. In this excerpt from his 2023 oral history interview, he details how he kept the Democratic alternative from passing, but his own bill became caught up in abortion politics and failed to pass. The full interview is in the Statehouse Conversationscollection.

Interview of Cynthia Hornberger, April 10, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
Dr. Cynthia Hornberger is a nurse-leader in nursing education and health care. In this 2026 interview she explains how nursing education evolved at Washburn University and how the status and competency of nurses has grown in hospitals across the country. Hornberger sees advanced practice-trained nurses as critical components of the health care team and critical to delivering health care in rural settings. Today the demand for nurses often exceeds the supply. She traces the history of the development of nursing programs in Kansas to the Axtell Hospital, Axtell, Kansas and overall to Lillian Wald who in 1893 advised Show MoreDr. Samuel Crumbine, Kansas' most famous public health official. When asked why Kansas is slipping in health rankings compared to other states, she suggests Kansas lacks access to services to prevent, monitor and treat illnesses. Shortage of health care professionals is another cause. She notes there are political ramifications - politicians who do not prioritize the health and well-being of infants and children or people who are socioeconomically challenged. The discussion of how the role of nursing changed over time reflects changing attitudes about gender roles and nurses' desire for more training and a larger leadership role. Hornberger believes some things in health care eventually will be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI), such as diagnostics. The interview ends with her summarizing of her 50 years in nursing and describing her passion for gardening.

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

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Interview of Brenda Landwehr, May 5, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
Brenda Landwehr went to the Legislature to solve problems. She didn't shy away from the tough ones, either. "I've always been one of those people that it's like, put up or shut up. You can only complain so long." So, she "jumped in with both feet" to the Legislative Health Academy, learned a lot, and at the end of the day, the participants had a great dialogue. Brenda tackled foster care privatization, trying to get the judges to participate. She chaired the Mental Health Modernization Committee and the Joint Committee on Children's Issues. Show More Child behavioral health issues became a passion for her and she started a pilot program in six districts around Kansas. During her second stint in the legislature she was chairing important committees that dealt with the state budget and Medicaid. After 22 years of public service, Landwehr remains one of the most knowledgeable people about health policy issues. Her interview is a good read! Show Less

Interview of Walter Menninger, July 23, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
Dr. Walt Menninger recently published his memoir covering his own impressive career, the expansive impact of his family on the field of psychiatry, as well as the evolution of the field of psychiatry itself over the last 137 years. The interview covers everything from Walt's earning Thespian of the Year at Topeka High School, the family history that led C.F. Menninger to practice medicine in Topeka, the family's preeminence in the field of psychiatry and as an institution that trained psychiatrists and many other fascinating stories. The book is "Like What You Do: The Show MoreMemoirs of Dr. Walt Menninger". Show Less

Interview of Kim Moore, May 7, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
Kim Moore was the President of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund for 31 years. He started out as a lawyer with a large Wichita law firm trying to save banks from regulators in the 1980's, but yearned for "something he could be passionate about." He saw that possibility in the Health Ministry Fund position so he moved his family to Hutchinson and "took a big risk" (and a big pay cut) that this foundation would be a way to align his spiritual views with practical opportunities including oral health, a safety net, rural health, access to care, Show Moreearly childhood programs and hospice care, to name a few. His interview details how the foundation's programs developed and the coalitions he created with communities and organization across the state as well as the battles they fought. After leaving the Health Ministry Fund in 2018, Moore continued as a consultant to non-profit groups.

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

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Interview of Robert Moser, March 10, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
Dr. Moser had an unusual background because he went to pharmacy school before deciding to go to medical school. This interview really highlights the difficulties of practicing medicine in a rural area, and shows Moser's innovations in responding to those challenges. He did his residency in his hometown of Tribune, Kansas. He also credits the business training in Pharmacy school as being helpful in responding to challenges which included workforce issues. To meet that challenge, Dr. Moser used a multijurisdictional approach to expand staffing in both Greely and Wallace counties. Delivering babies was a Show Morerecurring problem - no backup, no personal time. Moser left Tribune in 2010 to work as Governor Brownback's Secretary of Health and Environment but left 3 years later because of opposition to medicaid expansion. In 2014 he joined the Kansas Heart-Stroke Collaborative - a CMS innovation - and also taught population health and family medicine at KU Medical Center. After surveying emergency room data regarding patients who came in with heart attacks and strokes, they were able to develop evidence-based guidelines for rural health care staff that improved patient outcomes. Show Less

Interview of Ed O'Malley and Robert St. Peter, June 1, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
This joint interview of two foundation leaders should be of great interest to those interested in improving the Health of Kansans. Both their respective foundations believe strongly in "working upstream", a concept that is focused on preventing health problems before they occur. They state, "to improve Health, we need to change policies and systems" through advocacy, research, collaboration. That means changing the way we think about Health as well as "convening Kansans to build a shared vision for how we'd get there." They discussed "Health vs. healthcare" and Medicaid Expansion and why it hasn't happened in Show MoreKansas. One opinion (O'Malley) was changes in social structural supports and policies are changing the system dynamics. Jordan pointed out that his foundation (UMHMF) was focusing on thriving children, by putting food on the table, providing childcare. Kansas's fall in the national state-by-state health rankings prompted a lively discussion of Why? One possible solution was to reinstate the county health rankings to encourage more participation by local governments. Another deficit--the declining numbers of behavioral healthcare professionals--was attributed in part to the loss of Menninger with no state effort to counterbalance it. The interview concluded with a stimulating discussion of ideas and strategies that might help reverse the decline in Kansas' health ranking. Show Less

Interview of Maynard Oliverius, March 6, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
Maynard Oliverius lays out in clear terms the policy choices the federal government made that shaped the health care system in the country today. Starting in 1946 with the Hill-Burton Act that paid for new hospital facilities, then the creation in 1965 of Medicare and Medicaid to ensure that seniors had a way to pay for health care and medical research, he tracks federal changes through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid Expansion. He also notes that Kansas was leading other states in health rankings in the early 1990's, but now has fallen significantly behind other states' efforts Show Moreto improve the health of their residents. Access to health care has become a major problem for many Kansans. The interview also touches on the growth of Stormont Vail under his leadership and how it is now a major medical center serving northeast Kansas and is a locally owned, locally operated nonprofit organization. Oliverius concludes by offering his opinion that ideally the country needs to move to a single payer system in order to provide access for all - he describes it as "medicare for all." He expressed concern about the current direction of health policy nationally. Show Less

Interview of Gianfranco Pezzino, January 23, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
This interview with Dr. Gianfranco Pezzino is the second in the Healthy Kansans series and sets the stage for understanding the concern that Kansas has slipped considerably in the nationwide rankings of health in the states over the last 30 years. His explanation of how the rankings work and why they are important is clear and understandable. Pezzino stated, "In the end, I became more and more convinced that the important thing was not the numbers. It was the communication that we could build around those numbers." His discussion of the social determinants of health Show Moreis important to understanding the rankings. He recalls a controversy covered by the local newspaper that quoted the county commissioner saying, "What does education have to do with health?" He used that as a opportunity to begin a community conversation about those linkages. As an epidemiologist, Dr. Pezzino has played many roles in health policy in Kansas - from the local health officer to state policy maker. He recounts the stresses of being the county health officer during COVID and comments that the "social contract has been broken." He comments that there is still value in providing accurate data as a public health person but now a lot of the authority has been moved from public health officers to local elected officials. That change has created a tension between individual rights and the social good. Show Less

Interview of Kathleen Sebelius and Sandy Praeger, May 11, 2026

Interviewed by Robert St. Peter
This interview is a great conversation between two "giants of health policy," guided by Bob St. Peter, to address health issues of importance to Kansans. Both women saw the failure to expand Medicaid as one of the reasons for Kansas' slide in national health rankings and probably one of the contributing factors that rural Kansas is less healthy than urban areas. Both mentioned that Kansas policymakers don't feel that health is a worthwhile investment --too often they don't prioritize health. Both pointed out that the business leaders in the state don't see health as a priority the Show Moresame way they did when they pushed for early childhood education. The politics of health have become more difficult after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, more partisan. Sebelius believed that the Governor's office should be the place for championing various initiatives. The interview discusses a number of initiatives that were tried in Kansas.

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

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Interview of Robert St.Peter, January 23, 2026

Interviewed by Jim McLean
This is the opening interview for the series, Healthy Kansans. Dr. Bob St. Peter will be interviewing all the rest of the participants in this series, so Jim McLean wanted to use this interview to establish his expertise. St. Peter was President and CEO of the Kansas Health Institute for 24 years, developing and expanding their services in Kansas. Prior to that he had extensive experience in Washington DC with health policy [see his biography]. For this series of interviews, St. Peter defines health in the broadest terms and points out why the health rankings Show Moreare valuable information for policy makers. The Kansas Health Foundation which created KHI really wanted the KHI to look at a broad set of issues that influenced how healthy we are as a city, as a county, as a state, and how education, housing and transportation influenced a person's health. St. Peter points out that health in Kansas isn't getting worse. People in Kansas are living longer, generally experiencing lower rates of cardiovascular disease, stroke, etc. So, it is not that our collective health is getting worse; it is that our relative standing compared to other states is getting worse. Other states are doing better and are faster than Kansas in improving the health outcomes for their citizens. Kansas should be working on this as well. Show Less

Excerpt from Interview of Bob Tomlinson, August 2024: Medicaid Expansion

Interviewed by Chris Courtwright
Bob Tomlinson served in the Kansas House of Representatives from 1993 to 2002 representing the Roeland Park area in Johnson County. He was known as a moderate Republican. He also served as Assistant Commissioner in the Kansas Department of Insurance and various other state government positions. In his August 2024 interview, he talks about Medicaid Expansion and why it should pass. His full interview and transcript is in the Statehouse Conversations collection. It is full of funny stories about other prominent politicians of the era.

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