By: Staff, Public Policy We are excited to share our inaugural blog post on what we are thankful for…the policy edition. We often share updates on health and human services policies, but they aren’t always positive. With this blog, we focused on a few of (but not all) the policy developments that help move Ohio...
How is Ohio managing the Medicaid unwinding process and eligibility?
Key Takeaways The Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee (JMOC) of Ohio’s 135th General Assembly held a meeting at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio on October 19, 2023, where the Medicaid Unwinding process was covered, providing a historical perspective of unwinding. During the meeting, Thomas Aldridge, Manager, Associate Practice Area Director, and Peter Cheesman, Manager, from Public...
Apply Now for the Ohio Board of Nursing’s Doula Advisory Board
In July 2023, the 135th General Assembly passed House Bill 33, which authorizes the Ohio Board of Nursing to regulate the certification of doulas, through the creation of a doula advisory board. Doulas are professionals trained to provide non-medical, emotional, and physical support throughout a woman’s pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. The doula advisory board will...
Medicaid Unwinding: plans, challenges, and tools
During the Public Health Emergency (PHE), the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) provided states enhanced federal funding if states agreed not to disenroll members from Medicaid. With the end of the public health emergency, also came the end of the enhanced federal funding that FFCRA provided. States are now returning to enrollment as it...
The Ohio Department of Medicaid’s Substance Use Waiver (SUD) 1115 Waiver: An Update
The SUD 1115 demonstration waiver is a pilot program meant to offer a comprehensive continuum of care for Medicaid-enrolled individuals with an opioid use disorder or other substance use disorder. A central part of the waiver focuses on enhancing residential treatment services by permitting Ohio to receive federal funding for Medicaid services for individuals with...
What happened with doulas in the state budget?
Community Solutions has been working for several years with the legislature and both the Kasich and DeWine Administrations to improve women’s and maternal health in Ohio. One key element of this work is expanding access to doulas. When we learned that one of Governor DeWine’s budget vetoes was related to doulas, we had to dive...
Bots and Benefits: How is AI impacting Ohio public benefits programs?
In a previous blog exploring AI, we talked about the usage of AI tools in behavioral health, as well as funding in the state budget for digital therapeutics. While AI has significant application in performing serious tasks such as mental health treatment, there are also basic uses of AI that function on a lower level....
Brandy Davis joins Community Solutions as Fellow, Medicaid Policy
The Center for Community Solutions welcomes a new member of the policy team. Brandy Davis has joined the staff of The Center for Community Solutions as a Fellow, Medicaid Policy. John Corlett, President and Executive Director said, “I am impressed by Ms. Davis’s ability to connect Medicaid policy to the lives of real people, and...
What is Value-Based Care, Again?
If there is an annoyingly vague policy term that gets bandied about when discussing Medicaid, it’s “value-based care.” How do we define “value-based care?” What are the policy triggers that indicate “value-based care?” How do we know if “value-based care” is being achieved? Frankly, “value-based care” gets thrown out so often and so casually that...