As the state prepares to transition to a unified disability determination system, thus ending the Medicaid spend-down program, additional information about who will be affected by the transition, and the impact of these changes, has been released. The Governor’s Office of Health Transformation (OHT) published an overview of the changes. The impact of the state’s...
Tag: Ohio
Post
State Hard at Work on Integrated HIV Prevention and Care Plan
As mandated by the Health Resources and Services Administration, HIV/AIDS Bureau (HRSA/HAB) and the Centers for Disease Control, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (CDC/DHAP), the State of Ohio has begun working on a five-year plan on HIV prevention and care needs, existing resources, barriers and gaps within jurisdictions, and how it plans to address them for...
Post
CMS Release Final Managed Care Rule
On April 25th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the much anticipated final rule significantly updating regulations pertaining to managed care organizations (MCOs) participating in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program or (CHIP). MCOs are private insurance companies that provide, or arrange the provision of, services for Medicaid enrollees in exchange...
Post
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...
Post
Will my insurance cover my IUD?
It has been well-established that long-acting and reversible methods of contraception like IUDs and the implant are a good option for many women. They provide the most effective coverage of all available contraceptive methods available, with failure rates of less than one percent; they can last up to a decade; and they can be easily...
Post
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...
Post
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,...
Post
MBR Bill Proposes More Change for System
Services for individuals with developmental disabilities in Ohio may see more changes through the recent proposals outlined in House Bill 483, introduced last week. Sponsored by Representative Amstutz, the House Bill is a part of the mid-biennium review (MBR), a Kasich construct, which allows the administration to advance policy initiatives in off-budget years through working...
Post
Poverty is everywhere…even in Geauga County
According to the most recent data made available by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), Cuyahoga County is home to the greatest number of low-income residents in the state. About 18 percent of the population lives at or below the poverty threshold, about $19,000 for a family of three. In the city of...
Post
Commission on Infant Mortality has its first meeting
I attended the first meeting of the Commission on Infant Mortality last Wednesday in the Ohio Senate Finance Hearing Room. The meeting lasted for nearly 3 hours. Medicaid Director John McCarthy made the initial presentation, focusing on the new $13.4 million in the state budget for infant mortality work. He pointed out that Ohio’s high infant...