Kansas Medicaid disability-services waiver approved for October launch
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved Kansas’ new Community Supports Waiver, establishing a Medicaid home- and community-based services option for eligible people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. The waiver and a related KanCare amendment are set to take effect Oct. 1, 2026.
CMS approved the initial 1915(c) waiver on July 1, according to the Kansas governor’s office, which announced the approval July 9. The program will operate statewide under KanCare, Kansas’ Medicaid program.
Kansas projects that 500 individuals will participate during the waiver’s first year, from Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2027. That is a CMS-approved enrollment projection, rather than a final count of people who will enroll.
Who the waiver is designed to serve
The Community Supports Waiver is intended for Kansans age 5 and older with intellectual or developmental disabilities who do not require 24-hour support but would otherwise need services in an intermediate care facility for individuals with intellectual disabilities, often referred to as an ICF/IID.
The program adds another Medicaid pathway for people whose support needs do not require 24-hour institutional care. Its stated purpose is to provide earlier and more flexible community-based support for that population.
The state announcement does not give a current count for the comprehensive intellectual and developmental disabilities waiver waitlist. It also does not say how many people on that waitlist may move into the new Community Supports Waiver. The approval therefore does not establish that the existing waitlist will be eliminated.
Services and annual limit
The approved waiver includes service categories such as employment support, personal care, respite, therapies, assistive technology, remote support, home modifications, life-skills services, benefits planning, caregiver training and nonmedical transportation.
Services under the waiver are subject to an annual cap of $20,000 per participant. The approved list identifies categories the waiver can cover; it does not establish that every participant will receive every listed service. Individual eligibility and service planning will determine what support is provided.
The new program is structured as a 1915(c) waiver, while CMS also approved a related 1915(b) amendment for KanCare. Both are scheduled to begin on the same Oct. 1 effective date, linking the new service option to the state’s managed Medicaid framework.
What happens before the launch
The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment will administer the statewide work under KanCare. Before the program begins, the agencies said they will carry out system updates, provider enrollment and training, policy development and outreach.
Those implementation steps are the state’s next known work before the waiver becomes effective. Provider enrollment and training, in particular, are among the steps identified by the agencies as they prepare to make the program operational.
The first-year projection of 500 participants and the $20,000 annual cap define the initial scale approved for the waiver. Actual enrollment will not be known until the program is underway, and the announcement does not provide a timetable beyond the Oct. 1, 2026, effective date for the steps Kansas agencies identified.
For qualifying people and families, the approval creates a defined Medicaid option for community-based supports rather than a setting requiring 24-hour care. Kansas now has federal approval in place; the remaining stated task is implementation before the October launch.
Sources
- Governor Kelly Announces CMS Approval of Kansas’ Community Supports Waiver Effective October 1, 2026, Office of the Governor of Kansas