Cincinnati Enquirer...
Bill to boost Ohio nursing home quality  
December 18, 2011 

A bill to boost the quality of Ohio’s nursing homes -- and also make them homier -- is on the fast track for approval by state legislators. 

The bill, authored by state Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, would tie higher reimbursements to 20 new quality measures. 

But some nursing homes aren’t happy with the bill, with their administrators saying the rules boosting quality should be even tougher. That’s because nursing homes would have to meet only five of the 20 measures next year to get the higher daily reimbursement. 

“They’ve set the bar so low that everybody’s going to get” the money, said Ken Huff, vice president and chief financial officer for Maple Knoll Communities, a non-profit that operates nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Springdale and Oxford. 

The critics worry that the qualifying nursing homes might even include facilities on the federal government’s special focus facility list of the nation’s lowest quality nursing homes. Eight nursing homes from Ohio, including two from Hamilton County, are on the federal list. 

But state officials say the shift “is not the end point,” said Eric Poklar, spokeswoman for the state Office of Health Transformation. Gov. John Kasich created the office shortly after taking office in January to curb the state’s Medicaid spending and improve the performance of the health care system. 

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