06/29/2017

Budget Heads to Governor’s Desk: What You Need to Know

Budget Heads to Governor’s Desk:
What You Need to Know

On Wednesday afternoon, both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly voted to pass the biennium budget for SFY18-19, sending the bill on to the Governor. There were a number of wins in the budget, including the maintenance of the HCBS and nursing facility rates at current levels, and an exclusion for hospice patients in a measure of nursing home antipsychotic usage. Other provisions included: 

Reimbursement rates for Nursing Homes

• Removes the proposed 7% cut to direct care rates;
• Adopts rate formula changes proposed in House version and includes Senate change to quality measure for antipsychotic medications that exempts hospice patients residing in a nursing home;
• Essentially flat funds nursing home reimbursement for FYs 18 and 19;
• Creates a spending cap based on historic levels and if cap is met then rate decreases will be applied.

Medicaid Managed Long Term Services and Supports (MLTSS)

• Adopts the Senate version with some changes that remove the date certain for a report to the legislature or for a vote on legislation to include LTSS in managed care;
• Includes the House provision that requires a review of the MyCare program to be included in the study committee.

Assisted Living Waiver:

• Adopted the House version, which creates a workgroup;
• Requires the workgroup to (1) identify potential barriers to enrollment in the Program and providers' participation in the Program and (2) consider making community-based services that are similar to assisted living services available under other programs that ODA currently administers or under a new program.
• Requires that the workgroup complete a report of its review by July 1, 2018. 

LeadingAge Ohio staff has prepared a detailed summary of the budget in the form of a crosswalk which delineates the differences between the Executive (“As Introduced”), House, Senate and Final “As Passed by Senate and House” versions of the budget. This will help members easily see the “whole picture” of this year’s budget process as it relates to long-term services and supports.  To review the crosswalk, click here.

From here, the budget heads to the Governor’s desk for his signature. It is speculated that Governor Kasich, who has built his governorship around healthcare issues, may exercise his line-item veto power on the sections of the budget which place limits on Medicaid expansion. If he does that, the General Assembly will have to determine whether they will seek votes to override the veto. The Governor is required to act on the bill by July 1, the beginning of the new state fiscal year. 

To read the article on the budget included in The Source, click here.

To review a complete summary of the budget, prepared by LeadingAge Ohio lobbyists Barnes & Thornburg, click here.

To view previous versions of the budget, click here.