Gov. Kasich pledges $2 million to children’s hospitals

During a visit to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus last week, Gov. John Kasich made a surprise announcement that the state would provide $2 million to Ohio’s children’s hospitals for coordinated research (Source: “Kasich pledges $2M for research by Ohio children’s hospitals,” Cincinnati Business Courier,” July 14, 2011).

Kasich said that he had not planned to pledge the money until he saw the research in person. He said the only stipulation for the money is that all six of the state’s children’s hospitals must work together on the research.

Kasich was visiting the hospital to talk about how Partners for Kids, a network of nearly 400 primary-care doctors serving some 300,000 children on Medicaid, is the model for the state pediatric care coordination model. The work of Partners for Kids was featured in HPIO’s recent publication “Understanding the Medicare ACO and Its Potential Impact on Ohio and the Nation: Considerations of CMS Draft Rules.”