The Ohio state legislature on Wednesday night approved an $875 million Medicaid payment aimed at correcting what the Ohio Supreme Court found was a yearslong formula error that left nursing homes underpaid by hundreds of millions of dollars. The funding was included in a budget correction measure approved by the Republican-controlled legislature this week and now heads to Gov. Mike DeWine (R) for his signature. The payment is intended to resolve litigation brought by nursing home operators who argued the state failed to properly calculate Medicaid reimbursement rates, resulting in facilities receiving less money than required under state law. Nursing homes receive a daily rate from the state for each Medicaid resident, with facilities that meet higher quality standards receiving additional funding. The state is supposed to adjust those rates for inflation, known as rebasing, which is where the dispute began.
Nursing home operators said the state did not consider each patient’s complexity, meaning facilities serving the most medically vulnerable patients received less funding. The state legislature changed the formula, but Ohio was still liable for underpayments from previous budgets.
