The Ohio House of Representatives passed a bill allotting $300 million in federal money to pay direct care workers in the state's nursing homes, Cleveland.com reported Dec. 9.
The bill requires funds to be spent exclusively on “direct care staff compensation, which may include staff retention bonus payments, overtime pay and shift differential payments, staff recruitment costs, and new hire incentive payments,” according to LeadingAgeOhio.
Other appropriations in the bill include:
- $33 million to residential care facilities
- $23 million to hospices
- $42 million to intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities
- $100 million for Medicaid services via the state's Department of Developmental Disabilities
- $124 million for rural and critical access hospitals
- Nearly $11 million for nursing home strike teams, resource teams used to help manage outbreaks