Ohio nursing homes take $30M hit

Ohio Governor John Kasich on Monday threw the state’s nursing homes a curve ball as he vetoed a provision allowing $30 million in bonuses to high-quality nursing home funding in a midterm budget review. The Ohio House and Senate had approved bonus money for homes that meet at least one quality standard for resident care.

The current budget allows for higher reimbursement to skilled nursing facilities that meet any five of 20 quality standards.

According to a news report, Kasich said, “No new data has been presented to justify those changes, demonstrate a need or explain the rationale for this specific amount.”

A statement from the Ohio Health Care Association Executive Director Peter Van Runkle expressed disappointment. He stated in a news report that this $30 million was not additional spending because the money for payments was appropriated in last year’s budget bill.

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