The OPRA Nursing Workgroup was formed this year to discuss and address nursing issues in the IDD field. Two major issues surfaced this year in relation to the state budget that impact the individuals we serve and their health and safety:

1.      Push to downsize ICFs and increase waivers.

2.      Implement “nursing in waiver services.” The new “nursing in waiver services” will initially be offered to those transitioning from TDD waivers to I/O waivers. Eventually, this service will be open to all IO recipients.  

 

Nursing services will be minimally funded in the IO waiver. State plan nursing and the medical add on will remain in effect. The medical assistance add-on rate under Ohio waivers is $0.12/unit ($0.48/hour). This rate is for purposes of homemaker/personal care only and only available to an individual who qualifies for the modification:

·         one who requires routine feeding or administration of prescribed medications through a G or J tube or routine doses of insulin,

·         one who requires oxygen administration that a licensed nurse agrees to delegate, or

·         one who requires a nursing procedure or nursing task that a licensed nurse agrees to delegate.

There is no remuneration for the delegating nurse or for health care coordination, preventative services or consultation services to direct care or management staff in the waiver setting. We strongly believe that this is inadequate, does not meet the needs of the individuals we serve, and needs to be updated to reflect our changing environment. We believe nursing services play a vital and constant role in the lives of the individuals we serve; naturally at varying levels of service.

 

The OPRA Nursing Workgroup intends to engage the Department of Developmental Disabilities and the Ohio Department of Medicaid in the nursing services expansion discussion and advocate for the health needs of the individuals we serve. In order to form our arguments and make our case we need your assistance in gathering the demographic information about the health status and requirements of the individuals we serve. To gather this information we have generated two surveys – one for Executive Directors and the other for nurses.

 

Why two surveys? We want to collect as much demographic information as we can from varying sources. Some providers deliver both ICF and waiver services; while others provide only waiver or ICF services. We will utilize the state nursing listserve to collect information from the nursing sector. We will factor in redundancies.

 

The link to these surveys is below. However, before you begin the survey you may wish to contemplate the questions and gather the information or enlist assistance in gathering the information. This will take some time, but it is very important information. Once you have gathered the information completing the survey will be a breeze. We will add to this information the estimated associated costs to argue that payment for general nursing services offers substantial savings for the state and federal government and that reimbursement for general nursing services should be included in law and rule.

 

For Nurses: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NursingSurveyListServe

 

For Executive Directors: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NursingSurveyExecutiveDirectors

 

For questions and concerns please contact Anita Allen at aallen@opra.org or Christine Touvelle at ctouvelle@opra.org

 

We would like to have your information by January 29^th.

 

Thank you in advance for your time and commitment to improving our nursing services!

 

The OPRA Nursing Workgroup