Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Surety Bonds Included in Senate Budget
With the deadline to finalize the state’s two-year budget looming, the Senate Finance and Financial Institutions Committee yesterday released its substitute version of House Bill 66, the biennial budget bill for fiscal years 2006 and 2007.

The bill includes an OHA amendment to increase a requirement for surety bonds from $1 million to $3 million for Medicaid managed care plans, reducing potential liability for hospitals, and scales back mandated managed care for the aged, blind and disabled population in favor of two pilot projects. An OHA initiative to delete a tax on insurance coverage carried by captives was deleted from the Senate version of the bill.  

Although the sub bill would restore $6 million per year in Medicaid funding to Ohio’s six children’s hospitals, Ohio’s adult hospitals still face challenges in securing an amendment making recalibration budget-neutral, which is OHA’s top priority in the weeks ahead. OHA is also seeking to delete the requirement that a hospital not entering into a contract with a managed care organization must accept the regular Medicaid rate for that service.

The sub version would not restore the Disability Medical Assistance Program, which covers prescription drugs for 15,000 poor Ohioans, or restore eligibility for 25,000 working Ohioans on Medicaid.

The Senate version would also increase Ohio’s cigarette tax by 70 cents, netting $257 million over two years, rather than the House-approved increase of 45 cents per pack.

The sub bill must still be approved by the full Senate before heading to conference committee. The final budget must be approved by June 30. OHA will continue to advocate against cuts to eligibility, along with supporting budget-neutral Medicaid recalibration and Medicaid managed care equity. (Bridget Gargan, bridgetg@ohanet.org)   

HHS Charters Medicaid Commission
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week announced the creation of a Medicaid commission to provide input on ways to modernize the Medicaid program to ensure it can provide high-quality health care to beneficiaries while maintaining financial stability. The commission will submit two reports to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and Congress. The first, due Sept. 1, 2005, will provide recommendations on achieving $10 billion in Medicaid savings over five years and will propose long-term changes to better service beneficiaries. The second is due Dec. 31, 2006 and will offer long-term Medicaid reform recommendations that ensure sustainability.

The HHS notice appeared in this week’s Federal Register. Both the notice and the commission's charter are available online at www.cms.hhs.gov/faca/mc/default.asp. The notice also calls for commission nominations, which are due by June 3, and hospital advocates will work to ensure hospital perspectives will be represented on the commission. (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)

Thursday, May 26, 2005
House Prods Hospital Tax-Exemption
The House Ways and Means Committee continued a series of hearings today on the tax-exempt hospital sector. The hearing evaluated the history of hospital tax-exemption, the current qualification hospitals must meet and the federal government’s role in updating the criteria for tax-exemption.

On the whole, the committee did not seem to support revoking the tax-exempt status of hospitals, citing their value as economic drivers and community assets. However, committee members expressed the need for more clear standards and criteria governing hospital tax-exemption. To qualify currently, hospitals are required to provide a community benefit, as governed by the IRS.

Other issues identified by the committee were hospital policies on billing, particularly to the uninsured, and the availability of federal programs to subsidize hospitals, such as Medicare and Medicaid Disproportionate Share, Indirect Medical Education and bad debt payments. The committee also cited the potential need to standardize levels of charity care provided by hospitals, quality requirements, reporting on profits to ensure they are used for the community good, and oversight of for-profit ventures.

Invited witnesses include U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mark McClellan, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark Everson and others. The hearing is part of the committee’s larger review of all tax-exempt organizations, including hospitals, which began last June. No additional hearings are scheduled at this time, but are expected later this summer.

The issue was also raised in a separate committee by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA), who yesterday requested information on hospitals’ charitable activities and patient billing from 10 hospitals and health systems, including one in Ohio. A copy of the letter is online at http://finance.senate.gov/press/Gpress/2005/prg052505.pdf.   (Jonathan Archey, jonathana@ohanet.org)

Med Mal Crisis Persists but Ohioans Can Help
Despite several positive changes in Ohio’s medical liability insurance market, the state is still in crisis and rate jumps continue forcing good doctors to leave Ohio, stop practicing medicine or at least reduce the services they offer. Visit the updated www.AskYourDoctorOhio.com Web site to learn more about how this crisis can affect quality health care for all Ohioans and what can be done to ease this emergency situation.

Resources available on this updated site include results of a survey the Ohio Department of Insurance released earlier this year that showed nearly 60 percent of responding physicians have retired or stopped practicing, or plan to stop in the next three years due to rising insurance expenses. The Ask Your Doctor Ohio campaign gives Ohioans a voice in this crisis by providing information and resources on how to help.  (Mary Yost, maryy@ohanet.org)

Friday, May 27, 2005
Click Here for Information on Quality Health Care in Ohio
There may not be a doctor in every Ohio house, but nearly 60 percent of Ohio homes have a computer tucked away in a home office or bedroom with a direct line to the Internet and a wealth of health care information. As Ohioans use technology to become more savvy consumers, hospitals encourage them to seek out reliable information and educate themselves on factors impacting their personal health. Over the past several months, a surge of health care quality resources with new information or easier-to-navigate formats have set up shops online. The Ohio Hospital Association also offers a new site providing an online table of contents to help patients navigate these resources.