OHA Advocacy Network

Advocacy Report • Friday, March 7, 2008

Action for next week…

Monday

Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, Room 121 at 1:30 pm

Tuesday

HB 496 - Capital Reappropriations: Senate Finance & Financial Institutions, Finance Hearing Room at 2:30 pm (Sponsor testimony)

Wednesday

HB 496 - Capital Reappropriations: Senate Finance & Financial Institutions, Finance Hearing Room at 9:30 am (All testimony, possible vote)

HB 456 - Health Care Reform: House Healthcare Access & Affordability Committee, Room 116 at 10 am (Proponent testimony on tax credit on self-employed returns)

HB 355 - Medicaid Fraud: House Civil & Commercial Law Committee, Room 122 at 2:30 pm (All testimony)

HB 253 - Advance Practice Nurses: House Health Committee, Room 17 at 4 pm (All testimony, possible vote)

Inpatient Medicaid Freeze Rule Heads to Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review

The rule placing a two-year freeze on inpatient Medicaid rates is on the March 10 agenda of the Joint Committee on Agency Rule (JCARR). Although the rule meets all criteria for JCARR approval, OHA voiced opposition to the rule in a letter to Gov. Ted Strickland and members of JCARR. OHA expressed dissatisfaction that the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) failed to modify the rule from two years to one, as OHA requested at a February public hearing.

Last week the House Finance and Appropriations Committee heard a presentation from Office of Budget and Management Director Pari Sabety on the budget shortfall. The committee also heard from the public, including testimony from OHA reiterating concerns about the Medicaid inpatient rate freeze and the methodology used by ODJFS for estimating the impact of the freeze ton both the fee-for-service and managed care arenas.

Rep. Shannon Jones (R-Springboro) also voiced concern about the rate freeze, stating “We ought not take it out on the backs of hospitals because of our [ODJFS] failure to contain Medicaid costs.” (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

OHA Extends Grassroots Challenge to Nurse Execs
House Bill 346, legislation supported by OHA, the Ohio Organization for Nurse Executives (OONE) and the Ohio Nurses Association is soon expected to receive a vote in the Ohio House. In preparation for the vote, OHA asked all OONE members write a letter to their state representatives urging a “yes” vote on the bill.

OHA continues to push for enactment of the “common sense” nurse staffing legislation. House Bill 346, sponsored by Rep. Jim Hughes (R-Columbus):

Ų 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.

Ų 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 others who request a copy of the plan.

To help OONE members and others generate letters in support of the bill, OHA is utilizing a Web-based grassroots advocacy tool that allows individuals to easily and quickly draft and download a letter. Individuals can add their own comments to OHA’s template letter and they can ask others from around the state to take action as well. In past grassroots advocacy efforts, OHA has generated up to 150 letters to members of the legislature. Because the state’s nurse executives have been so active in this and other issues, OHA has extended a challenge to the OONE membership to generate more than 300 letters in support of HB 346. (Jeff Klingler, jeffk@ohanet.org)

House Panel Considers Nurse Faculty Salary Proposal; OHA CAP Committee Prioritizes OHIO C.A.R.E Issues

The House Healthcare Access and Affordability Committee Wednesday heard testimony on a proposal to raise the salaries of new nursing instructors as a way to entice nurses to enter the profession. The proposal is contained in an omnibus state health care reform bill, House Bill 456, sponsored by Rep. Jim Raussen (R-Springdale).

HB 456 proposes increasing the starting salaries of new nurse facility teaching in public institutions, including:

A $10,000 increase for individuals who begin teaching nursing classes for the first year of the bill’s effective date; and
A $5,000 increase for individuals who begin teaching nursing classes in the second, third, fourth, or fifth state fiscal years after the bill's effective date.

In testimony, Mary Duffey, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Health Council’s Workforce Center, thanked the committee for focusing on an important component of solving Ohio’s nursing shortage – the lack of nursing instructors. Duffey cautioned that the salary increase proposal, while a positive step in recruiting qualified nurse educators, could have negative unintended consequences, such making it more difficult to retain existing nurses, especially those teaching in private institutions, which are not included in the salary increase requirement.

In a related matter, this week Raussen, who also serves as committee chairman, released an agenda for committee hearings on other provisions in the legislation. Provisions of high importance to the OHA membership include:

Charity care reporting requirements for tax-exempt hospitals, which is scheduled to be heard April 2 or 3;
Requirements of hospitals to contract with all Medicaid managed care entities in their region, which is scheduled to be heard on May 14 or 15.

OHA’s Committee on Advocacy and Policy (CAP) met last week to discuss the legislation, recommend positions on the bill’s provisions to the OHA Board of Trustees, and categorize elements of the bill into two tiers. Those tiers include:

Tier 1 (OPPOSE):

Tax-exempt hospital charity reporting
Medicaid managed care contracting
HCAP Medicaid managed care participation

Tier 2 (SUPPORT):

Insurance coverage of losses resulting from the use of alcohol or other drugs
Dental hygienist collaborative agreement with dentist
Health Insurance Credit Program
Health information technology pilot program

The committee decided to remain neutral or support but not actively lobby on the remaining issues. The OHA analysis of HB 456 can be found at http://www.ohanet.org/advocacy/state/issues/resources/ohaanalysishb456.pdf.

OHA will coordinate testimony on key provisions with member hospitals. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)

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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)