A new version of an anti-fraud bill would ban family members from being paid by Medicaid to offer personal care services to disabled Ohioans. Dozens of disabled people and their advocates packed a House committee hearing late Wednesday to share their frustrations and fears over dramatic changes to Medicaid and home health care.
House Bill 795, known as the Safeguarding Healthcare Integrity through Electronic Location Data or SHIELD Act, has already been changed once before. Republicans on the Ohio House Medicaid Committee accepted a substitute bill that would prohibit family members from being paid by Medicaid for personal caregiving, and increases mandatory fines for Medicaid fraud ranging from $1,000 to $15,000. The bill still requires electronic visit verification or EVV, and would put new restrictions on home health care providers and suspend payments to suspect providers. The substitute bill doesn’t include provisions related to publicly funded child care, which had been included in the earlier version of the bill.
People in wheelchairs crowded into the House Medicaid Committee room for two and a half hours to stress the need for caregivers so they can live at home. Speakers said if family members who apply for waivers can’t be paid, then thousands more paid caregivers will be needed or more disabled Ohioans could end up in costly long-term care facilities such as nursing homes. People who go through the waiver process to be paid through structured family caregiving programs are among those providing home health care services in Ohio, but most family members who are caregivers are unpaid…