Budget gives nursing homes more money

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio’s nursing home industry, traditionally one of the most generous in the state when it comes to political donations, scored a lucrative victory in the revised budget that House Democrats proposed this week.

Extra money for nursing homes in the House budget makes them eligible for more federal money, negating a large fee increase the governor had proposed in his earlier budget — all for an industry that has lavished political donations in recent years, records show.

The House plan adds $33.5 million in new state money to the $40 million Gov. Ted Strickland had budgeted for nursing homes’ capital expenditures. That extra money qualifies nursing homes for about $160 million in new federal Medicaid funds.

Strickland, a Democrat, had proposed raising the bed tax that nursing homes pay from $6.25 a day to $11 a day. The increase would have brought in $285.1 million for the state.

All that additional money in the House proposal for nursing homes all but offsets Stickland’s bed tax increase.

An industry estimate found that the fees Strickland proposed would have jeopardized 2,000 jobs at Ohio nursing homes.

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