House Finance Committee Hears MBR; OHCA Proposes Rate Relief
Last Friday, Governor John Kasich’s Mid-Biennium Review (MBR) legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives as House Bill 487. The Governor suffered an immediate setback as the House Finance and Appropriations Committee stripped his signature proposal, a reduction of the personal income tax tied to an increase in taxes on oil and gas producers, out of the bill. This week, after the full Finance Committee received testimony from Office of Budget and Management Director Tim Keen and other state officials, various House committees and subcommittees held hearings on different aspects of the massive MBR. The human services portion, including Medicaid, was heard by the Finance Committee’s Human Services Subcommittee, chaired by Representative Jeff McClain (R-Upper Sandusky). On Wednesday, Office of Health Transformation Director Greg Moody, State Medicaid Director John McCarthy, and Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Director Ted Wymyslo testified, and Thursday’s slate included Department of Developmental Disabilities Director John Martin. One item of interest was ODH’s request to eliminate the Public Health Council. The council is a rulemaking body within the department that recently blocked and delayed several changes to the nursing home licensure rules that had been negotiated between ODH and provider representatives and that reflected agreements reached in the state budget bill. Another provision in the MBR would change the law on the SNF bed tax to avoid the need to issue bed tax refunds, as occurred earlier this fiscal year. Also on Wednesday, OHCA Executive Director Pete Van Runkle asked the panel to provide $40 million in rate relief to Ohio’s skilled nursing facilities, using money already appropriated but unspent. Among other things, he pointed out that the administration’s proposal to increase rates for “critical access facilities” only assists seven SNFs, but all Medicaid-participating facilities suffered from the rate cuts enacted last year. Subcommittee members, particularly Representative Barbara Sears (R-Sylvania), asked a number of questions about the OHCA proposal. The only other public witness on Wednesday was Danielle Smith, Executive Director of the social workers’ association, who objected to the language in the MBR implementing the earlier agreement to conform state requirements for employment of social workers in SNFs to the federal regulations on the topic. Ms. Smith’s comments received considerable attention from the subcommittee. Additional hearings on the MBR are scheduled for next week.