Medicaid Expansion Freeze:
- Prohibits any new enrollees beginning Sunday, July 1, 2018, and freezing enrollment beginning in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. (vetoed by governor)
- Exempts those with serious mental illness and drug addiction
- Requires the Medicaid director to seek a waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS) to implement the freeze. (vetoed by governor).
Medicaid Reimbursement Rates:
- Prohibits any Medicaid rate increases if the Department of Medicaid (or any other responsible agency) fails to submit the Medicaid payment rate proposal to the Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee (JMOC), if JMOC votes to prohibit the proposal within 30 days, or if legislature votes to prohibit the proposal within 90 days.
Controlling Board Changes Impacting Medicaid:
- Requires the Medicaid director to request the Controlling Board to authorize expenditure from the fund in an amount necessary to pay for the costs of the Medicaid program
- Provides for the Health and Human Services fund to continue to exist during 2018-19
- The Controlling Board may authorize the expenditure if Congress does not enact a lowering of the federal match for the expansion group.
Changes in Eligibility for Medicaid Expansion group:
- Requires the Department of Medicaid to establish a waiver program under which an individual must be at least 55 years of age, be employed, be enrolled in school or an occupational training program, be participating in an alcohol and drug addiction treatment group, or have intensive health care needs to be eligible.
Healthy Ohio Program and Waiver (vetoed by governor):
- Requires the Medicaid director to submit the healthy Ohio waiver to CMS no later than Monday, January 31, 2018
- States the General Assembly’s intent to use the Health Ohio Program as a model if the U.S. Congress decides to block grant the Medicaid program.
Family Practice and Clinical Teaching Line Items:
- Maintained separate line items for the various schools of medicine instead of the consolidation of line items as proposed by the House.
- Reduced each line item an additional 2% over the biennium. Since the Senate previously cut each line item 3%, this brings the total cut to these line items to 5% over the biennium.
- For line item 235519, Family Practice, conference committee reduced the line item by another $63,323 (2%) in each fiscal year, bringing the total reduction to that line item to 5% over the biennium. The line item is now appropriated at $3,007,876 in each fiscal year.
- Beginning in FY2019, requires each institution of higher education that receives funds from any of the 12 clinical teaching line items to report the residency status of students that have graduated from one of the applicable programs at one year and five years after graduating.
Patient-Centered Medical Home Program:
- Removed a provision that would have abolished the Department of Medicaid’s patient-centered medical home program (also known as the Ohio Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) Program). While the program was not abolished, the budget did not provide funding for Ohio’s CPC program.
- Removed House added language that would have (1) eliminated the authority of the Medicaid Director to implement as part of the Medicaid program a system under which individuals with chronic conditions receive health home services and the Director’s authority to implement a similar system for individuals with developmental disabilities.
Telemedicine Services:
- The conference committee removed provisions of the bill related to the coverage of telemedicine services that would have required a health benefit plan to cover telemedicine services on the same basis and extent that the plan covers in-person health services.