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Ohio: Ohio Hospital Association

June 1, 2009 - 01:24 pm
NEWS FEED: Columbus Dispatch

Editorial: Unhealthy treatment

They just call them fees instead of taxes. One of the most harmful is the proposed hospital franchise fee, which would cost Ohio's cash-strapped hospitals $127 million, $333 million or $411 million, depending on whose plan and estimates one adopts.

The basic arithmetic is this: The state would impose the fee on hospitals and apply the revenue generated to the state's share of Medicaid. That money, combined with similar assessments on other health-care providers, would draw about $2 billion in matching funds from the federal government for the state's Medicaid program.

In return, the governor proposed to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates to hospitals so that they recoup some of the franchise fees they pay.

Read More at Columbus Dispatch >
There have been 30 comments posted in response to this story.

March 1, 2009 - 06:34 am
NEWS FEED: Columbus Dispatch

Hospitals object to fee for Medicaid

By Catherine Candisky

The administration has proposed shifting a portion of the state's Medicaid costs to the four largest providers of care -- hospitals, nursing homes, facilities for the mentally retarded and managed-care companies.

Under the governor's two-year budget plan, the Medicaid providers would pay $1.3 billion in fees. The revenue, administration officials say, would free up state funds for other uses.

Health-care providers say new money for the state means lost money for them, and, ultimately, employees and consumers will pick up the tab.

"The state Medicaid budget is being balanced on the back of hospitals," said Tiffany Himmelreich, spokeswoman for the Ohio Hospital Association.

"If we are putting up a dollar and for the state to draw down three, we want our dollar back.

Read More at Columbus Dispatch >
There have been 27 comments posted in response to this story.

February 5, 2009 - 04:35 am
NEWS FEED: Cleveland Plain Dealer

Strickland's budget plan puts tax cuts in one hand, takes fees from the other

By Laura Johnston

If Gov. Ted Strickland gets his way, the state's newest chunk of money won't slip out of your paycheck or ring up with your purchases. It won't be called a tax.

Instead, it will sneak out of your pocket as you renew your vehicle registration, order an extra copy of your birth certificate or have your trash hauled away.

More than 150 fees will also burden mortgage brokers, insurance companies, hospitals, cigarette retailers, landlords, campgrounds and other businesses.

All could try to pass the costs on to customers.

"Since the costs go to businesses, they ultimately flow through to individuals," said Josh Barro, a state business tax expert at the right-leaning Tax Foundation in Washington, D.

Read More at Cleveland Plain Dealer >
There have been 21 comments posted in response to this story.

February 3, 2009 - 08:40 am
NEWS FEED: Columbus Dispatch

Pay cuts, medical-facility fees stir outcries

By Catherine Candisky

The administration announced yesterday that the governor will ask nearly all state employees to take pay cuts of up to 6 percent to save as much as $200 million in the next two years. Reductions would be based on salaries; the lowest-paid employees would be exempt.

Meanwhile, Ohio hospitals would pay $598 million in the two-year budget period because of a new hospital franchise fee, and nursing homes would cough up an additional $285 million under a near doubling of the nursing-home "bed tax."

A statewide coalition of nursing homes has been running television advertisements for a week urging viewers to call Strickland and urge him not to cut funding to nursing homes.

Read More at Columbus Dispatch >
There have been 27 comments posted in response to this story.