Legislature Completes Work on Capital Bill and Great Lakes Compact Measures; Recesses for the Summer

Last Tuesday, the Ohio Legislature completed work on the Fiscal Year 2009-10, $1.3 billion capital appropriations/budget corrections bill and two measures related to the Great Lakes Compact.  These major pieces of legislation needed to be dealt with before the Legislature took its summer recess. There is the possibility that the Legislature will not return until after the November 4, 2008 General Election for a “lame duck” session in November and December. Any legislation that is not enacted this year will die and would have to be reintroduced in a new session of the Ohio Legislature that will begin in January of next year.

In other business, the House Republicans appointed Richard Nero of Hudson to the 42nd House District to replace Rep. John Widowfield (R-Cuyahoga Falls) who abruptly resigned last month amid allegations that he resold Ohio State football tickets for a profit after purchasing them with campaign funds.  Mr. Nero is an education and health care consultant who is employed by Oracle and is a graduate of Kent State University.  In the fall General Election, Mr. Nero will be running to retain the seat against Democrat Mike Moran. 

Ohio Long Term Care Partnership Website Up and Running

Recently, the website for the newly created Ohio Long Term Care Partnership Program was activated.  The new website can be found at www.ltc4me.Ohio.gov.   Agents may be interested in the downloadable brochure and fact sheet that are available under the “Resources” heading.  I also wanted to make you aware that the heading “Find an Agent” is a work-in-progress.  Currently, only the life insurance companies that have approved Long Term Care Partnership insurance products are listed.  OAHU is working with the Ohio Department of Insurance to establish a link to life insurance agents who sell the Partnership product. 

In a related matter, Ohio’s “Own Your Future” program was recently unveiled to encourage Ohioans between 45-65 years of age to start planning for their long term care needs.  Part of the outreach of the program was a mailing to 1.7 million Ohioans asking them to request a long term care planning guide.  To date, over 170,000 persons have formally requested the guide which is an excellent response for a direct mail piece. One of the topics discussed in the planning guide is the Long Term Care Partnership Program.

Ohio Hospitals Unveil Charity Care Report

Last week, the Ohio Hospital Association issued a report stating that member institutions provided $1.8 billion in 2006 to fund charity care, community services, and losses from Medicaid. The report was based upon information from 174 hospitals statewide. Losses (prior to offset) totaled $2.4 billion including $650 million in losses through Medicaid, $868 million for charity care (a term that refers to discounts provided for patients unable to pay), and $899 million for various community activities covering direct costs not reimbursed by fees, grants, insurance or other sources.  Such activities included hosting support groups, medical research, training future caregivers, free health screenings and educational programs.  The $2.4 billion in losses were offset by $326 million in Hospital Care Assurance Program payments to hospitals and $263 million in Medicare Disproportionate Share payments to hospitals. The report also stated that Medicaid losses would continue to expand as hospitals feel the negative effects of state-level reimbursement rates that have been frozen since 2005.

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