As of August 10th, 794,806 Ohioans received their primary source of health coverage through Ohio’s Medicaid expansion. On that same day, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to the Ohio Department of Medicaid notifying them that their previously approved 1115 Community Engagement (work requirements) waiver was withdrawn. As of August...
Author: Loren Anthes (Loren Anthes)
Post
Ohio General Assembly Must Protect Procurement, Not Contractor Profits
For years, The Center for Community Solutions has written about Ohio’s managed care program, with pieces outlining federal standards, current performance and value-based contracting. And, when Ohio Medicaid announced they were rebidding the contracts, we paid close attention, monitoring the feedback process, providing written comment and reviewing, in detail, the hundreds of pages worth of...
Post
Community Solutions consulting: Where advocacy and strategy meet
For more than 100 years, The Center for Community Solutions (Community Solutions) has served Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Through our research, policy analysis, communications and advocacy, we endeavor to improve social and economic conditions for the community we serve – and there has been tremendous change during this last century of service. Two world wars,...
Post
How are midwives regulated in Ohio?
Currently, only Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM) are the only legally-enabled professional midwife type who can practice in Ohio. As established in Ohio Revised Code (ORC) Section 4723.41, there are several requirements for CNMs, including licensure as an advanced practice nurse and an application to practice in the specialty and pay a license fee.[1] Also, as...
Post
State budget committee process
There is often fanfare when the governor introduces the executive budget, but it is the legislative body that ultimately determines what policy becomes law. And while we’ve written about how Ohio’s biennial budget process works, a deeper dive into committees’ role may help advocates and analysts understand how that policy is deliberated and formed. By...
Post
eFMAP: How Ohio Found its Way Out of a Budget Hole
In his second executive budget proposal, Governor Mike DeWine faces a much different funding environment than the one he faced in 2019. With an ongoing pandemic and economic recession, federal support has bolstered the state’s budget picture and helped prevent catastrophe. The Federal Medical Assistance Percentage is one of the most effective tools to ensure...
Post
Return on investment: Medicaid’s impact on kids
INTRODUCTION The biennial budget is perhaps the most comprehensive and consequential policy document in Ohio state government. During the budget process, lawmakers must balance the state’s policy goals against the realities of limited resources and competing needs. With the economic and health impacts of COVID-19, an incoming Biden administration and Democratic majority in Congress, Ohio’s...
Post
Increasing Medicaid caseloads during the pandemic, what can we learn?
Since February of this year, national Medicaid caseloads have increased by more than 7 percent with millions of Americans relying on the program as their primary source of coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic. This reverses a trend in recent years which saw many beneficiaries disenroll as the economy improved and federal administration imposed more stringent...
Post
The Reentry Act: reducing spread and recidivism during COVID-19
Tucked away into the HEROES Act is a relatively underreported but critically important Medicaid provision which could help citizens returning to society after incarceration connect to critical medical supports. It can also alleviate the financial burden of Ohio’s local government spending on corrections-based medical care. The Reentry Act, found in section 30110 of the HEROES...