Policy considerations for home-care providers continue

Strong public opposition against a phase-out of the state’s 14,000 or so independent home-care providers has prompted another conversation about how to improve oversight of another group of providers: home-care agencies (Source: “Licensing next for Ohio’s home-care providers?” Columbus Dispatch, March 30, 2015).

Ohio is one of only eight states that don’t license home health-care agencies, and there hasn’t been much momentum to do so in the past. But a key state lawmaker said she is more willing to consider licensure in the wake of testimony about the inconsistency and poor quality of care some Ohioans say they’ve received from agencies. State Rep. Barbara Sears (R-Sylvania), who is the House majority floor leader, says, “I think sometimes licensing is necessary. When we have vulnerable people, I think the state needs to step up and address that issue.”

In response to last week’s letter from the Federal Labor Secretary to Ohio Gov. John Kasich and other governors, warning them to make sure their upcoming budgets comply with a federal rule requiring minimum-wage and overtime pay for most home-care workers, the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation posted a paper on the topic. The document notes that “HB 64 does not eliminate independent providers, but does clarify that the employer for a direct support worker must be either the individual receiving services or an agency, not the State of Ohio.”