AARP Ohio, other groups criticize Strickland’s nursing home spending plan

In a letter to Gov. Ted Strickland, the Ohio Business Roundtable, AARP Ohio and other groups are urging Gov. Ted Strickland and legislators to reduce spending on nursing homes, given the state’s considerable budget shortfall (Source: “AARP and other groups urge governor to stop overspending on nursing homes,” Columbus Dispatch, June 24, 2009).

"Ohio's disproportionate nursing home spending ranks among the 10 worst states in the nation and if major changes are not made to (the budget) before it passes out of conference, that standing is likely to get worse," the groups wrote in the letter.

The letter was also signed by the representatives of the Ohio Association of Area Agencies on Aging and the Cleveland-based Center for Community Solutions.
The groups outlined changes that they said could save the state $100 million in the next biennium,
including:

• Providing long-term care services under a "unified" long-term care budget by combining funds for home and institutional care in a single pot of money to give consumers more choices.
• Increasing the bed tax charged nursing homes.
• Implementing a "price-based" payment system, which allows the state to set the price paid for services. The current "cost-based" system allows nursing homes to tell the state how much they are owed for providing care to Medicaid patients.
• Rejecting a proposal to strip anti-discrimination provisions from state law that prevent nursing homes from denying care to Medicaid patients.