Voluntary admissions will soon be accepted at Osawatomie State Hospital, for the first time in more than six years. Governor Laura Kelly announced that the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services is prepared to lift the moratorium on voluntary admissions on January third. Senator Caryn Tyson has been a proponent of the hospital in the past and has called for the moratorium to be lifted several times. She says it’s a positive step forward, not only for Osawatomie, but for the State of Kansas and mental health treatment.
The moratorium was imposed by officials in June 2015 partly in response to insufficient space at the hospital to safely treat both involuntary and voluntary admissions. The issues caused the hospital to lose Medicaid Certification in January 2016, a move that resulted in the loss of about $1million a month in Federal Funds. After the State Hospital renovated the 60-bed Adair Acute Care Facility, the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recertified the Adair Acute Care Unit in 2017
