By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — An economist with the Sandlian Center for Entrepreneurial Government at the Kansas Policy Institute has listed several actions that Kansas could choose to take to cut more government red tape in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic.
"Our goal was that Kansas should work to increase the supply of health care providers as much as humanly possible," said economist Michael Austin. "That includes allowing retired physicians to come back. It allows giving temporary licenses to nurses that may have out of state licenses. Here's something that may seem drastic, but I would argue is necessary, which would be letting final year Kansas medical students practice in Kansas early. That was tried in Italy and it brought about 10,000 physicians into the workforce to battle the virus spread."
Cutting the red tape for hospitals in also important.
"It's important that hospitals that are, let's say, not stressed, with COVID-19 cases, they should be allowed to assist the hospitals that are stressed," Austin said. "That means allowing any hospital to set up or operate a mobile facility regardless of where that facility is located within the state. Another goal is to take some of the non-coronavirus burden off of our Kansas nurses. That means allowing non-nursing staff such as an activity coordinator or a social worker or even just a volunteer to help feed or transport patients, as long as it's consistent with the patient's care plan."
There is one step Governor Kelly has taken already that Austin is happy with, which is pushing the tax deadline back to July 15th.
"Likely some other important action is to make sure we have as many truckers as possible transporting goods and medical supplies across the state," Austin said. "If a trucker has a CDL driver's license that was expired in the last two months, how about we just let them come back on the road and we'll worry about re-registering them or renewing their license at some other time."
Kelly has done something similar already with regard to regular driver's licenses and car tags extending the length of time to renew until after her emergency executive order has expired.