OHA Advocacy Network

Advocacy Report • Friday, February 8, 2008

Action for next week…

Wednesday

SB 221 - Energy Policy: House Public Utilities, Room 313 at 10 a.m. (All testimony)

HB 456 - Health Care Reform: House Healthcare Access & Affordability, Room 122 at 11 a.m. (Proponent testimony on School Nutrition Standards)

Early Voting Begins Today

Ohio voters can start requesting absentee ballots today for the March 4 primary. Registered voters wanting to vote early must fill out an absentee ballot request form and return the form to your local county board of elections. In order to receive your absentee ballot, you must submit your request by noon on Saturday, March 1. However, you should submit your request as far in advance of the election as possible. For your absentee ballot to be counted, your ballot must be received by your county board of elections by 7:30 p.m. on March 4.

OHA-Backed Nurse Staffing Bill Receives Unanimous Committee Approval

A House panel Wednesday unanimously approved legislation requiring hospitals to establish evidence-based nurse staffing plans after soliciting and considering input from direct-care nurses. Supported by OHA as “common sense” nurse staffing legislation, House Bill 346, sponsored by Rep. Jim Hughes (R-Columbus):

· 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.

· 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.

Before receiving a vote in the House Health Committee, changes to the bill were adopted including:

Licensed Practical Nurses would be required to be included in hospital staffing plans for those hospitals that employ LPNs;

When establishing their staffing plans, hospitals must consider the amount of time needed by nurses for patient education;

A requirement that the nursing care committee recommendations be available to anyone requesting was deleted from the bill, while maintaining the requirement that the staffing plan be provided free of charge to the hospital's nursing staff and others upon request for a nominal charge.

Grace Wakulchik, vice president of patient services and chief nursing officer at Akron Children’s Hospital, reiterated the support for the bill by OHA and the Ohio Organization of Nurse Executives, an OHA-affiliated society representing more than 500 nurse leaders in the state. She said the bill would go far to ensure that all Ohio hospitals solicit input from direct care nurses when making staffing decisions while, at the same time, ensuring that hospitals are considering evidence-based, quality standards when establishing nursing plans. She added that the bill furthers hospitals' efforts towards transparency in health care by requiring staffing plans be made available to those who request it and it holds hospitals accountable to patients and communities that appropriate nurse staffing is being provided to meet health care needs. Walkulchik’s testimony can be viewed at http://www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/issues/testimony/hb346wakulchik020608.pdf

The bill must be approved by the full House of Representatives before being considered by the Ohio Senate. (Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org)

State Health Care Reform Bill Receives First Hearing

Rep. Jim Raussen (R-Springdale) offered sponsor testimony on House Bill 456, also called Ohio C.A.R.E., in the House Healthcare Access and Affordability Committee Wednesday. Raussen noted, “This bill was and is a work in progress, a starting point. Most likely there will be some changes as we go deeper into some of these issues. I am not naļve to know that the task that lies before us is a difficult one.”

Raussen, who also chairs the committee, outlined his strategy for processing the bill. Hearings for the legislation will be scheduled according to four issue groups. Group one includes pricing standards for food in schools; nursing instructor salaries; tax credits on self-employed returns, and changing eligibility for dependent coverage on family policies. Group two includes use of federal prescription drug pricing programs; public dentistry; defining charitable care, and government tax credits for individuals and families. Group three includes statewide purchasing pharmaceutical benefit; assignment of benefits for emergency care; BWC discounts for businesses, and re-insure for chronic and pre-existing conditions. Group four includes role of health information technology; Medicaid managed care and contracting with hospitals, and miscellaneous other topics. Raussen did not present a timeline for hearings although he intends to start with group one and conclude with group four.

HB 456 contains numerous provisions which impact the OHA membership including:

· Requiring tax-exempt hospitals with Medicaid utilization rates under 35% annually to publish the cost of charity care provided and property and sales tax savings.

· Requiring non-disproportionate share hospitals (DSH) to contract with every Medicaid managed care organization (MCO) in their region to be eligible for Hospital Care Assurance Program (HCAP) funds.

· Requiring DSH hospitals to contract with every Medicaid MCO in their region to be eligible for more than the minimum HCAP funds.

· Requiring ambulatory surgical facilities to annually report certain data to the Director of Health.

· Offering discounts on Bureau of Workers’ Compensation premiums for employers who offer health and wellness programs.

· Creating a pilot program and advisory board with OHA representation to explore health information technology.

· Increasing compensation for nursing instructors.

OHA is working to identify areas of support and issues of opposition in the bill. OHA will actively engage members, hospitals and legislators in a dialogue on the issues impacting hospitals. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

Deliberation Continues on Energy Restructuring Bill

While House Public Utilities Committee continues their consideration of Senate Bill 221, they heard testimony from a hospital representative this week in support of the legislation which would bring affordable and reliable electricity to Ohio. John L. D’Angelo, director of health system facility management for the Cleveland Clinic, told the committee that energy makes up 50 percent of his facilities’ operating costs, averaging around $40 million annually and directly affecting the affordability of health care for the communities they serve. D’Angelo testified that SB 221, sponsored by Robert Schuler (R-Cincinnati), would create a viable energy framework to serve as a catalyst for Ohio’s economic and environmental health. He noted that affordable and reliable energy are crucial not only to health care consumers, but to all consumers.

OHA, along with other members of the Coalition for Affordable Power, met with House Speaker Jon Husted and Senate President Bill Harris this week to discuss their support of the proposal. Without the passage of legislation such as SB 221, electric rates after this year are expected to increase, with the potential to jump dramatically as in states with deregulated electric rates. The House is expected to release a revised version of the bill shortly. For more information, visit OHA’s energy Web page. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

Not a Member of the Advocacy Network?

Being a member of the OHA Advocacy Network provides you access to information on government activity and assists the hospital industry in sending unified messages to elected officials. If you are not a current member, you can easily join on-line. Join today to start reaping the benefits of being a member of the OHA Advocacy Network.

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)