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Advocacy Report • Friday, February 1, 2008
Action for next week… Tuesday HB 125 – Physician Credentialing, Managed Care Contracting: Senate Judiciary – Civil Justice, North Hearing Room at 11 a.m. (All testimony, possible amendments and vote) Wednesday Governor Strickland’s State of the State Address: 12 p.m. Can be viewed at http://www.ohiochannel.org/ HB 456 – Health Care Reform: House Healthcare Access & Affordability, Room 17 at 2 p.m. (Sponsor testimony) HB 355 – Medicaid Fraud: House Civil & Commercial Law, Room 122 at 2:30 p.m. (All testimony) HB 144 – Nurses Month: Senate Health, Human Service & Aging, South Hearing Room at 2:30 p.m. (All testimony, possible vote) SB 115 – Child Insurance: Senate Insurance, Commerce & Labor, North Hearing Room at 3:30 p.m. (All testimony) HB 346 – Hospital Staffing: House Health, Room 116 at 4 p.m. (All testimony, possible vote) HB 253 – Advance Practice Nurses: House Health, Room 116 at 4 p.m. (All testimony, possible vote) HB 280 – Abortion: House Health, Room 116 at 4 p.m. (All testimony)
Hospitals Support Physician Medicaid Increase, Hospital Recalibration Halt In a news conference Thursday, Gov. Ted Strickland announced he will halt the planned 2008 recalibration of Medicaid rates for hospitals and provide physicians with their first Medicaid update in seven years, effective July 1.
According to original estimates, the delayed recalibration will spare hospitals $13 million in losses statewide on care provided in Medicaid fee-for-service settings. OHA is working with the Ohio Department of Job of Family Services to verify the accuracy of the fee-for-service estimate as well as obtain a managed care estimate.
The state most recently estimated the freeze on hospital reimbursement will save $32.6 million over the biennium on fee-for-service. With managed care and federal Medicaid funds included, OHA estimates the impact could be as high as $159 million over two years. Talking points on the Medicaid freeze are available at http://www.ohanet.org/pr/talking_points/medicaid.doc.
Although disappointed to learn hospitals will not receive a reimbursement update, the association sent a news release to statewide media commending the governor’s decision to provide physicians with their first Medicaid update since 2001. Another freeze could have forced physicians to stop accepting new Medicaid patients, who would then turn to already overflowing hospital emergency departments for primary care or chronic care for untreated conditions. Ohio emergency room visits increased by 9.5 percent between 2003 and 2006 overall, by nearly 14 percent for Medicaid patients, and by over 19 percent for uninsured patients. On Monday, representatives of OHA, the Ohio Osteopathic Association, the Ohio State Medical Association and the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association met with the governor and his staff to ask that the Medicaid reimbursement increase be restored for all providers. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)
House Health Approves Maternity Licensure Bill House Health Committee this week unanimously passed a much-needed revision to Ohio’s maternity licensure statue. House Bill 331, sponsored by Rep. Mark Wagoner (R – Toledo), would change the current yearly maternity licensure renewals and maternity unit inspections to three-year licenses and tri-annual inspections. The OHA supported legislation would also create a Maternity Advisory Council comprised of medical professionals and caregivers to assist the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) in promulgating new rules that are evidence-based and reflect best practices. The bill must be considered by the full House before heading to the Senate. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)
Rep. Raussen Introduces New Health Care Reform Bill Rep. Jim Raussen (R-Springdale), chairman of the House Healthcare Access and Affordability Committee, this week introduced new health care reform legislation. OHA is currently analyzing the potential impact of House Bill 456 on the state’s hospitals but below are several key provisions:
OHA and hospital representatives testified at a series of regional hearings held by Rep. Raussen’s committee last summer in preparation for this legislation, and Rep. Raussen addressed hospital government relations officials late last year noting that HCAP would not be a major target. OHA will be meeting with Rep. Raussen and members of the legislature on key hospital issues in HB 456 and will provide additional information to member hospitals after further examination of the proposed legislation. Rep. Raussen’s press release and bill summary can be found on OHA’s Health Care Access & Affordability Web site. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)
Nurse Staffing Plans The House Health Committee is preparing a vote next Wednesday on House Bill 346, legislation being pushed by OHA as “common sense” nurse staffing legislation. Sponsored by Rep. Jim Hughes (R-Columbus), the bill:
Ø Requires hospitals to create a hospital-wide nursing care committee, which is charged with developing recommendations for a written nursing care staffing plan guiding the assignment of nurses. Direct care nurses representing all types of nursing services offered by the hospital will serve on the committee as will the hospital’s chief nursing officer. Ø Requires hospitals to create a staffing plan, giving significant regard to the committee recommendations. The nursing services staffing plan, which must be consistent with current governmental and private accreditation standards, must then be provided to all staff nurses free of charge and to other requestors at a nominal charge.
In a related matter, the National Nurses Organizing Committee, an arm of the California Nurses Association, is continuing to urge nurses around the state to contact their legislators and spread the word about the union’s yet-to-be-introduced legislation to require nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. (Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org)
Advocacy Reference Tool
An up-to-date version of OHA’s Legislative Directory is available at http://www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/resources/legislativedirectory.pdf. The Legislative Directory is a complete list of members of the Ohio General Assembly and members of Congress from Ohio, including district maps and state legislators' committee assignments offered in brochure style size. More detailed legislative information is available in the members-only OHA Advocacy Network Reference Manual.
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The OHA Advocacy Network is a service of the Ohio Hospital Association, 155 E. Broad St., Columbus, OH 43215-3620, 614-221-7614, 614-221-4771 (fax)
Visit us on the Web at: www.ohanet.org
Direct questions on OHA’s advocacy agenda to:
Bridget Gargan, Vice President, State Policy & Advocacy (bridgetg@ohanet.org) Jeff Klingler, Director, State Policy & Advocacy (jeffk@ohanet.org) Jean Scholz, RN, Director, Health Policy (jeans@ohanet.org) Rick Sites, General Counsel (ricks@ohanet.org) Stacey Conrad, Manager, State Policy & Advocacy (staceyc@ohanet.org) Jonathan Archey, Director, Federal Relations (jonathana@ohanet.org) Laura Landis, Executive Assistant, State Policy & Advocacy (laural@ohanet.org) © 2001-2008 OHA. Last updated
February 01, 2008. |