The House Finance Subcommittee on Health and Human Services heard testimony Thursday (March 2, 2017) morning from the directors of the Ohio departments of Health (ODH) and Mental Health and Addiction Services (ODMHAS) as it convened for its fourth hearing of H.B. 49, the executive budget proposal for fiscal years 2018-2019. ODH Testimony ODH Director...
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Overdose Deaths Continue to Climb in Ohio for All Drug Categories
The Ohio Department of Health released the 2015 Ohio Drug Overdose Data in August. The data clearly show an increase in deaths from heroin and fentanyl at unprecedented rates. The administration highlighted the progress that is being made from policies and practices implemented in the past four years, namely the reduction in prescription opioids dispensed...
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Prevention in Ohio: Examining Ohio’s Efforts to Curb the State’s Drug Epidemic through Prevention Education
In August, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office announced[1] the formation of a study committee to examine drug use prevention education in Ohio schools. The committee consists of members from both the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate in addition to numerous educators, members of the law enforcement community, state agencies, and organizations that focus on...
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What Happened to General Assistance in Ohio?
This year, we will reflect on a major milestone in social welfare history known as welfare reform. Enacted in 1996, TANF, or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, provides minimal cash assistance for very poor families with children, and funds other programs and services that aim to promote self-sufficiency. TANF replaced Aid to Families with Dependent...
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County Profiles: What’s New, and What Can We Learn?
This week, we’re pleased to introduce updated county profile factsheets. Our hope is that you’ll find them to be a useful resource for better understanding the needs in your community and advocating for programs and policies that can improve health and social conditions around the state. The factsheets focus on data related to health and...
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JMOC: Paying for Value
The Governor’s Office of Health Transformation (OHT) has made the transition to value-based payment its main focus since it was created in the beginning of the Kasich Administration. Now, before the budgetary swan song for this governor, many of the seeds planted in those early stages are starting to bear fruit and OHT is ramping...
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DODD Scorecard Suggests Progress on Budget Initiatives has been Slow
The Ohio Department of Development Disabilities (DODD) recently released updated data highlighting progress on several key initiatives, including expanding home-and-community based service (HCBS) waiver enrollment and increasing access to community employment. These initiatives were developed as a result of the last biennial budget, which included a $300 million investment in DODD services, mostly aimed at...
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State Releases Request for Grant Applications for Healthier Buckeye Grant Pilot Program
The state Healthier Buckeye Advisory Council was created in the 2014 Mid-Biennium Review and was tasked with helping to establish local Healthier Buckeye Councils at the county level. The aim of local Healthier Buckeye Councils is to encourage collaboration at the community level between businesses, social services, health care providers, service recipients, schools, Medicaid managed-care...
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Extreme Poverty in Ohio: How Many People in Ohio Live on Less than $2.00 Per Day?
The World Bank and other international organizations frequently cite incomes of less than $2.00 per person per day as a benchmark for poverty levels in developing countries. Policy experts in this country have also analyzed data on the extremely poor in the United States using this same standard. Next week, the authors of $2 a...
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The Social Services Block Grant is under attack. What does this mean for Ohio?
The House Ways and Means Committee announced last week that Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) is sponsoring legislation that would end the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), a $1.7 billion dollar grant allocated to states to fund numerous critical social service programs. And on Wednesday, this bill was one of several that passed through the Committee,...