The following statement can be attributed to Deborah Feldman, President & CEO, Dayton Children’s Hospital and Chair, Board of Directors, Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, in response to the Ohio Senate’s proposed biennial budget bill (Sub. House Bill 166).
June 12, 2019 – We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the members of the Ohio Senate to ensure that Ohio’s future workforce and most precious asset – our children – remains at the top of the state’s policy priority list.
The members Ohio Children’s Hospital Association were a strong proponent of Governor DeWine’s executive budget as reflected in the introduced version of HB 166, which contained stable and predictable funding mechanisms for children in our state and a robust pro-kid agenda to raise child health outcomes.
The Ohio House-passed version of HB 166 retained some of these provisions, but also added provisions that would have had significant negative impact on children’s hospitals. Had these provisions remained in the budget, they would have destabilized and made unpredictable Medicaid reimbursements for physicians and hospitals and significantly compromised our ability to enter into innovative value-based care arrangements with Medicaid managed care plans that raise child health outcomes.
We are grateful to the Ohio Senate for proposing to remove these provisions while ensuring that the budget preserves important proactive child-health initiatives and funding for the more than 1.25 million children who rely on Medicaid for health care coverage.
Importantly, OCHA is committed to ensuring patients have access to relevant price transparency information and are protected from surprise medical bills – and specifically from being balance-billed for those services. We continue to work with stakeholders to ensure the final version of the budget contains policies providers can comply with and protect Ohio’s patients and families.
The Ohio Children’s Hospital Association and our six members – Akron Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Dayton Children’s Hospital, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, ProMedica Russell J. Ebeid Children’s Hospital, and UH/Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital – work every day to save, protect and enhance the lives of Ohio’s children. We look forward to working with the Ohio Senate and eventually the Conference Committee to ensure that Ohio’s children remain a top priority in the final state budget.
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Media contact: Hannah Saunders: 740-215-0759, hannah@krilecommunications.com