Thank You!

From: St. John's Villa Family
________________________________________
From: list-manager@opra.simplelists.com [list-manager@opra.simplelists.com] On Behalf Of info@addsohio.com [info@addsohio.com]
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 2:46 PM
To: opra_members@opra.simplelists.com
Cc: opra_members@opra.simplelists.com
Subject: RE: Ohio¹s ³DD² Budget: Our Shared Victory

We're grateful Mark.

-----Original Message-----
From: "Mark Davis" <mdavis@opra.org>
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 9:32am
To: "opra_members@opra.simplelists.com" <opra_members@opra.simplelists.com>
Subject: Ohio¹s ³DD² Budget: Our Shared Victory

Ohio’s “DD” Budget: Our Shared Victory

Several weeks ago, I sent you an update on the status of critical “developmental disabilities” components in the just-approved Senate version of House Bill 59, Ohio’s budget bill.  Yesterday, the legislative budget process has concluded.  In short, we were extremely successful.

I am pleased to report that each of the items of high importance to OPRA members and stakeholders that our staff and members were fighting for remained intact in the budget bill’s final language.  Those include:

·      Increase in Waiver Rates.  $5.4 million in additional funding in FY14 and $10.9 million in FY 15 for waiver provider rate increases in the Individual Option waiver reimbursement system. Coupled with $5.4 million that was originally in the administration’s budget, this would total $16.2 million in FY 15 – the first ever increase since the system’s inception in 2005.  OPRA will work with other stakeholders to determine how this new money will be distributed - among what specific services.

·      ICF/IID Reform.  Revisions, based on an OPRA-led compromise, in the provisions that govern reform for intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ICF/IID).  These include elimination of the rollback in FY 15, elimination of the proposed flat rate for RAC-4, mitigation of DODD’s IAF scores in the re-basing project, retention of the ICF reimbursement formulary in statute, targets for downsizing larger ICFs to smaller ones, and conversion of ICFs to waivers.

·      Removal of New Staff Certification Requirement.  Removal of provisions that would have created a DSP (direct support professional) certification requirement.  New language calls for establishment of a work group to review and recommend potential policy changes in the area of core competencies for direct care workers to the legislature, by December 31st.

·      IDD-Specific Health Home.  Authorization of the Directors of Medicaid and Developmental Disabilities to establish a “health home” system that may provide coordinated care for people with chronic health conditions and developmental disabilities.

OPRA was the only “DD” advocate to play an active role in securing all four of the above provisions in the budget bill.  Efforts by OPRA staff and members only were directly responsible for the waiver and health home provisions.  And OPRA provided a strong leadership role on the other two.  We should be proud, collectively, of these achievements.  Our successes will help stabilize our waiver and ICF systems, benefiting our direct support professionals and the individuals they serve.

Our work is not finished. On a separate note we remain disappointed the General Assembly has not yet acted on the extension of Medicaid to low wage workers, leaving employers to face daunting, even disastrous, increases in health care costs and further stranding 275,000 Ohioans without health care insurance.  Many of these Ohioans are our own direct care workers.  OPRA has been a leader in the state working to get this done. The situation remains a “work in progress,” and we will continue to work hard to achieve lasting reform.

Stay tuned for how you can help shape Ohio’s future for providers and individuals with disabilities.

Mark Davis
President
Ohio Provider Resource Association
1152 Goodale Blvd.
Columbus, Ohio  43212
614-224-6772

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You are receiving this important information as a member service of the
Ohio Provider Resource Association.  Unless messages and/or replies are
specifically directed, each posting/response is sent to the entire
group.  This group is open only to OPRA members, a large and diverse
body.  The views of individual list serve users do not necessarily
reflect the view of the OPRA Board or Staff.  To send a message to this
list serve, please use the reply button.  To reply only to the original
sender, please respond to the email listed after “on behalf of” in the
FROM line of the message header.  Thank you.

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