Democrats in Ohio’s statehouse propose restoring funding to nursing homes

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Nursing homes along with hospitals will receive a break in a new Ohio budget proposal from Democrats in the state’s House of Representatives.

The House budget proposal funnels more than $73 million in state and federal funding back to Ohio nursing homes, though it does not repeal the doubling of the bed tax on nursing facilities. Non-profit nursing homes also get a break on some state fees.

As promised, the new proposal also offers hospitals a break on a proposed franchise fee. Initially the fee would have cost hospitals hundreds of millions. Now, House Speaker Armond Budish predicts it will cost hospitals statewide about $50 million.

“There is still a lot of work to do in the Senate, as hundreds of skilled nursing facilities would see a reduction in state funding even under the House budget, but the House Democrats have been extremely helpful in a very difficult fiscal environment,” Peter Van Runkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association, stated in a press release.

The House version of the budget includes several other wins for health-care interests. The departments of mental health and alcohol & drug addiction services will get $10 million more — again relying on federal funding and changes in Medicaid reimbursement.

It also removes a requirement from the controversial budget proposed by Gov. Ted Strickland earlier this year that hospitals must accept patients at a set rate from Medicaid managed-care companies with which the hospitals don’t have contracts. And it expands — as the Ohio State Medical Association had hoped — the state’s prompt-pay law to include private managed care plans.

The entire revamped budget relies not on shifts in spending, cuts or burdens, but largely on rosier budget projections, according to The Associated Press.

In the case of nursing homes and hospitals, both groups have warned of jobs cuts and service shut downs if the original Strickland budget passes.