Resources

Client Alerts, News Articles, Blog Posts, & Multimedia

Everything you need to know about BMD and the industry.

Healthcare Provisions in the Ohio FY 22-23 Budget

Client Alert
July 13, 2021

Governor Mike DeWine signed Ohio’s Fiscal Year 2022-2023 budget bill (HB 110) into law on July 1, 2021. At almost 1,000 pages and 74.1 billion dollars, the budget lays out the State’s spending for the next two years. Below are a few highlighted provisions from the budget that will be important for the healthcare industry in Ohio:

Medicaid

Overall, Medicaid received an investment of $31.0 billion for the fiscal year 2022 and $32.2 billion for the fiscal year 2023 in order to:

  • Support the procurement and reorganization of Ohio's managed care system to improve wellness and health outcomes while emphasizing a personalized care experience. This includes new Medicaid Managed Care Organizations, OhioRISE, and the implementation of a single pharmacy benefit manager.
  • Continue funding of Medicaid's Behavioral Health Care Coordination program.
  • Continue and expand Medicaid's Emergency Telehealth program, to continue telehealth services for medical, clinical, and behavioral health.
  • Provide an additional $4 million per year for the prevention of custody relinquishment of multi-system youth children.

Moms & Babies

  • Increased funding for Help Me Grow by $1.9 million each fiscal year, which will provide for more home visiting services for at-risk, expectant mothers, and families of young children at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
  • $25 million towards increased support for the lead hazard control programs including a new, statewide Lead-Safe Housing Fund that will provide competitive grants to Ohio communities to abate lead hazards in their housing.
  • $2.25 million for housing initiatives for pregnant mothers through the Development Services Agency, along with the Department of Health and the Governor’s Children's Initiative.
  • Medicaid coverage for mothers up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level for a full year after giving birth, an increase from the current coverage of 60 days after birth. 

Nursing Homes & Long-Term Care

  • Additional oversight and enforcement of nursing home and long-term care laws to ensure the health and safety of older Ohioans and additional new worker training opportunities through the Department of Aging.
  • $490 million for quality outcome incentives for Medicaid nursing home services that will reward nursing homes for providing high-quality, outcome-driven care.
  • Implementation of a Nursing Home Bed Reduction Program to costly excess unused bed capacity.

RecoveryOhio & Substance Use Disorder Treatment

  • $4.5 million to expand early identification programs including increased screening, early intervention, and connections to treatment.
  • $3 million to address health disparities on minority, poor, and underserved populations.
  • $41 million to continue the support of crisis services for children, youth, families, and adults with mental health and substance abuse disorder needs.
  • $29 million to expand access to the Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation Program and to establish the My Life, My Quit youth-centered quit program also seeks to educate Ohio youths of the risks of vaping/e-cigarette use.
  • $10 million to expand Specialized Dockets within courts with the purpose of connecting individuals with support services around mental health, substance use disorder, trauma care, and other services to better the individual's wellbeing.
  • Continuation of support to local health providers’ harm reduction efforts for accidental drug overdose rates and deaths.

Mental Health

  • Over $11 million increase in funding to strengthen multi-system adult collaboration to connect people with serious mental health issues to needed care, recovery supports, stable housing, and positive community participation.
  • Expanding access to treatment within Ohio's correctional facilities by increasing recovery services, counseling, peer support, technology, and medication. Recovery services provided during incarceration significantly increase the likelihood that these individuals become productive members of society when released.

Conscience Clause

  • Added late in the budget process, this statute allows any medical practitioner, health care institution, or health care payer to “decline to perform, participate in, or pay for any health care service which violates the practitioner's, institution's, or payer's conscience as informed by the moral, ethical, or religious beliefs or principles held by the practitioner, institution, or payer." 

Hospital Licensure

  • Ohio will now require hospitals to be licensed. Once the Ohio Department of Health develops corresponding rules, Ohio hospitals will have three years to comply and become licensed. For more information on hospital licensure, see this BMD Client Alert by Member Vicki Ferrise along with Jacob Davis.

In addition to all of the items above included in the FY 22-23 budget, Governor DeWine also issued several line-item vetoes immediately prior to signing the bill. Most important to the healthcare area, DeWine vetoed provisions that would have required Medicaid to revise its procurement process and would have likely delayed the implementation of the new Medicaid Managed Care structure.

These are just a handful of the many, many provisions included in the Ohio budget for the next two years. If you have any questions about how these changes may affect your healthcare practice or business, please reach out to Ashley Watson at abwatson@bmdllc.com or any BMD healthcare attorney.

healthcare lawHealthcare and Hospital LawAshley Watson
Client Alert

Employer Liability for COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects

June 9, 2021As employers encourage or require employees to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine, they should be aware of OSHA recording obligations and potential workers’ compensation liability. Though OSHA has yet to revise its COVID-19 guidance in response to the latest CDC recommendations, OSHA has revised its position regarding the recording of injury or illness resulting from the vaccine. Until now, OSHA required an employer to record an adverse reaction when the vaccine was required for employees and the injury or illness otherwise met the recording criteria (work-related, a new case, and meets one or more of the general recording criteria). OSHA has reversed course and announced that it will not require recording adverse reactions until at least May 2022, irrespective of whether the employer requires the vaccine as a condition of employment. In its revised COVID-19 FAQs, OSHA states:Client Alert

The New Rule 1.510 - Radical Change for Summary Judgement Procedure in Florida

June 8, 2021In civil litigation, where both sides participate actively, trial is usually required at the end of a long, expensive case to determine a winner and a loser. In federal and most state courts, however, there are a few procedural shortcuts by which parties can seek to prevail in advance of trial, saving time, money and annoyance. The most common of these is the “motion for summary judgment”: a request to the court by one side for judgment before trial, generally on the basis that the evidence available reflects that a win for that party is legally inevitable and thus required. Effective May 1, 2021, summary judgment procedure in Florida has radically changed.Client Alert

Vacating, Modifying or Correcting an Arbitration Award Under R.C. 2711.13: Three-Month Limitation Maximum; Not Guaranteed Amount of Time

June 8, 2021In a recent decision, the Supreme Court of Ohio held that neither R.C. 2711.09 nor R.C. 2711.13 requires a court to wait three months after an arbitration award is issued before confirming the award. R.C. 2711.13 provides that “after an award in an arbitration proceeding is made, any party to the arbitration may file a motion in the court of common pleas for an order vacating, modifying, or correcting the award.” Any such motion to vacate, modify, or correct an award “must be served upon the adverse party or his attorney within three months after the award is delivered to the parties in interest.” In BST Ohio Corporation et al. v. Wolgang, the Court held the three-month period set forth in R.C. 2711.13 is not a guaranteed time period in which to file a motion to vacate, modify, or correct an arbitration award. 2021-Ohio-1785.Client Alert

EEOC Provides Updated Guidance Regarding Employer COVID-19 Vaccine Policies

June 3, 2021On May 28, 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its guidance regarding employer COVID-19 vaccination policies. The new guidance provides much-needed clarification of expectations for employers seeking to promote workplace safety and prevent the spread of COVID-19, including discussion of mandatory vaccination policies, voluntary vaccination incentives, and accommodation of employees based on disability or sincerely held religious beliefs. The full text of the update is found in Section K of the EEOC’s COVID Q&A document. You can also learn more about these and other developments from BMD's Bryan Meek and Monica Andress through the Employment Law After Hours YouTube channel, available here.Client Alert

What Telemedical Barriers Practices Face and How They Can Manage Them

May 28, 2021The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to many businesses and industries having to rapidly adapt new practices in order to stay profitable, and the healthcare industry is no exception. Although telehealth tools and practices have existed and been used since the Vietnam War, the pandemic has caused many individual healthcare practices to heavily rely on telehealth as a large portion of their service mix in order to continue to provide care for patients. Because of this rapid adoption of telehealth practices in order to combat the restrictions of COVID-19, the telemedicine industry’s revenue has exploded in the last year. Experts predict that telehealth will continue to grow in use beyond the current pandemic, estimating the industry’s worth to be $25 billion by 2025. However, this rapid adoption of telehealth was prompted out of need and has not been without its own barriers that practices now face.
Older posts
Newer posts