AOF Webinar 6-14-11

Editor's Notes

• #2: Need Groundwork picture!!
• #4: Medicaid: Long-term reforms will improve health care outcomes and lower costs Without significant reform, growth in the state’s Medicaid program would overwhelm spending in all other state programs.  The Governor’s Office of Health Transformation moves Ohio’s Medicaid program in the right direction through a number of strategies to reduce system costs and improve health outcomes by modernizing the health care payment system, integrating behavioral and physical health care and reducing other fragmentation in the system, and improving the coordination of care. These strategies will better position the state to take advantage of many of the improvements available through federal health care reform.  The proposed changes will particularly help Ohioans with chronic conditions and children with disabilities who will benefit from coordinated care and integrated hospital, physician, and supportive services.  We also commend Governor Kasich for: Preserving Medicaid Eligibility –Ohio’s eligibility limits are already lower than many other states. Reductions to eligibility would have harmed vulnerable populations including more than 1.2 million of Ohio’s 2.9 million children who rely on the Medicaid program for their health care coverage.  Preserving Access to Medicaid’s “Optional Services” –Optional services, which include vision, dental, prescription drugs, hospice care, and community mental health services among other things, provide cost-effective care and enable people to avoid care in more expensive settings.  Elevating Behavioral Health Financing to the State –The decentralization of funding and lack of state investment has brought Ohio’s community behavioral health system to the brink of failure and collapse. In addition, disconnected systems have created perverse incentives to shift patients to more expensive and, often, inappropriate settings. Relieving counties of this responsibility will enable the state to create consistent and comprehensive policies to ensure better care for Medicaid-eligible individuals with behavioral health disorders. Rebalancing Long-Term Care— Ohio’s long-term care system relies too heavily on nursing home placements, which are more expensive than home- or community-based care. The governor’s budget establishes a goal of reducing the nursing home population to 50 percent of the state’s long-term care system.  Reforming the payment system for Large Providers –Since the Medicaid program was delinked from cash assistance in 1996, it has evolved from being a welfare program to a major player in the health care market. As such, its focus has had to shift to ensuring value for spending. Hospitals and nursing homes represent significant areas of Medicaid spending. The governor’s budget modifies Ohio’s out-of-date hospital payment system and moves nursing homes to a price-based reimbursement system that focuses more on quality.
• #5: Preserving Investments Made in Early Care and Education – Helping children enter school ready to learn is critical to their long-term success. The budget preserves funding in the Department of Education for Early Childhood Education (formerly public preschool) for 5,700 children. The budget maintains some funding for Ohio’s Step Up to Quality program that works to improve the quality of Ohio’s early care and education programs. Funding for the Help Me Grow program was reduced by $3 million each year. We applaud the administration for continuing work begun in the Strickland administration to refinance this program through Medicaid. Refinancing portions of this program will mitigate General Revenue Fund (GRF) reductions.  The Governor’s focus on prenatal care is a common-sense method of promoting healthier children and mothers, and it saves money in the system. Lowering the number of low-birth-weight babies – whose care costs six times more than that of healthy babies – will have positive effects down the line, reducing the need for early intervention, special education in school, and more.  Preservation of the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, TANF Cash Assistance, and emergency food assistance represents more good news in the budget. DYSBoth the RECLAIM program and Youth Services Subsidy line items are funded at FY 2011 levels in both years of the bienniumContinuation of funding for Juvenile Justice Behavioral Health ProgramsOne more Juvenile Detention Center closed
• #8: Preserving Investments Made in Early Care and Education – Helping children enter school ready to learn is critical to their long-term success. The budget preserves funding in the Department of Education for Early Childhood Education (formerly public preschool) for 5,700 children. The budget maintains some funding for Ohio’s Step Up to Quality program that works to improve the quality of Ohio’s early care and education programs. Funding for the Help Me Grow program was reduced by $3 million each year. We applaud the administration for continuing work begun in the Strickland administration to refinance this program through Medicaid. Refinancing portions of this program will mitigate General Revenue Fund (GRF) reductions.  The Governor’s focus on prenatal care is a common-sense method of promoting healthier children and mothers, and it saves money in the system. Lowering the number of low-birth-weight babies – whose care costs six times more than that of healthy babies – will have positive effects down the line, reducing the need for early intervention, special education in school, and more.  Preservation of the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, TANF Cash Assistance, and emergency food assistance represents more good news in the budget. DYSBoth the RECLAIM program and Youth Services Subsidy line items are funded at FY 2011 levels in both years of the bienniumContinuation of funding for Juvenile Justice Behavioral Health ProgramsOne more Juvenile Detention Center closed