March 29th, 2011
The House Finance & Appropriations Committee today adopted the language provisions for Gov. John Kasich’s proposed budget bill (HB 153), and details on the provisions of the measure are now available online.
The bill text can be found here. The pdf version allows you to search by key word or section of the Ohio Revised Code. Additionally, we have divided up some sections of particular interest to behavioral health into their own separate pdfs:
OACBHA will provide an analysis of the changes for members and affiliates as soon as possible.
Tags: alcohol and drug, bill, Changes, HB 153, Kasich, medicaid, mental health, Ohio, Ohio Budget
Posted in Budget Alert, Publications, Up to the Minute |
March 23rd, 2011
Under a bill recently presented to the U.S. Senate (S 539), behavioral health providers would be able to receive incentive funding from government programs like Medicare and Medicaid for using electronic health records. Sponsored by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the Behavioral Health Technology Act is designed to expand funding to licensed clinical psychologists and social workers. It would also allow psychiatric hospitals, community mental health centers, and substance abuse treatment facilities to become eligible for Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record based incentive funding. To read the bill, click here.
Tags: BH, Budget, EHR, Federal, medicaid, medicare, S 539, Sheldon Whitehouse
Posted in Publications, Up to the Minute |
March 23rd, 2011
An online database called The Alcohol Policy Information System allows individuals to track changes in state alcohol policy through 2009. There is also a function which compares existing policies across state lines. The APIS reports that many of the states’ policy changes up through 2009 have been consistent with efforts to diminish alcohol related death and injury in the general population. Several provisions have been enacted to address issues such as underage drinking, health insurance loss due to intoxication, and health insurance parity for alcohol related treatment. To access the database, visit http://www.alcoholpolicy.niaaa.nih.gov/.
Tags: 2009, Alcohol, APIS, database, NIAAA, NIH
Posted in Publications, Up to the Minute |
March 23rd, 2011
Just as Ohio’s Pill Mill crackdown legislation begins hearings in the Senate (HB 93), at the federal level the “Pill Mill Crackdown Act of 2011” has been introduced in Congress (HR 1065). The bill amends the Controlled Substances Act to increase penalties for operators of pill mills. To read the bill, click here.
Tags: bill, crackdown, Federal, HB 93, Ohio, opioid, Pill Mill
Posted in Publications, Up to the Minute |
March 23rd, 2011
The Health & Human Services Sub-Committee of House Finance has released a revised schedule for when the directors of the state agencies will be testifying. The Office of Health Transformation, ODADAS, and RSC directors will be testifying starting at 3:00 on March 30th. The directors of Aging and Mental Health will testify on March 31th starting at 9:00 a.m. Medicaid will be the topic for April 4th at 3:00. Public testimony will take place on April 6th starting at 3:00 p.m., April 7th at 9:00 a.m., and April 8th at 9:00 a.m. All hearings are in room 313 at the Statehouse.
Tags: 2011-2012, Budget, odadas, Ohio, RSC
Posted in Publications, Up to the Minute |
March 16th, 2011
The House gave grudging approval on Tuesday to a plan to finance the federal government for three more weeks. Congressional leaders said the measure, which imposes $6 billion in new spending cuts, would avert a government shutdown while giving Republicans and Democrats until April 8 to conclude a more sweeping budget deal to finance the government through Sept. 30. On the final vote of 271 to 158, 186 Republicans and 85 Democrats supported the budget extension; 54 Republicans and 104 Democrats opposed it. Republican supporters of the legislation urged their colleagues to approve one last interim measure. They noted that the bill cuts $6 billion in current spending on top of $4 billion in reductions imposed in the previous two-week budget bill that expires Friday. Senate leaders predicted that the Senate would approve the measure later this week despite mounting conservative resistance in that chamber as well.
Tags: 2012, Budget, Federal
Posted in Publications, Up to the Minute |
March 16th, 2011
Tags: 2011, 2012, 2013, Budget, Detail, facts, medicaid, odadas, odmh, Ohio, Transformation
Posted in Budget Alert, Publications, Up to the Minute |
March 15th, 2011
Governor Kasich released his proposed budget for SFY 2012-2013 this afternoon. The full Blue Book for the Governor’s Jobs Budget is available here. The document for the Ohio Department of Mental Health’s Budget is available here. The budget document for the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services is available here.
Posted in Budget Alert, Publications, Up to the Minute |
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