COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio House sent Gov. Mike DeWine a bill Thursday afternoon clearing the way to $4 billion in federal coronavirus relief, including $300 million for Ohio nursing homes and $639 million for child care.
House Bill 169 requires nursing homes to use the money on direct care workers. Nursing homes, which say they’ve been stretched thin with staff turnover during the pandemic, are happy about the money.
Child-care advocates are excited for the money, too but are concerned about a provision inserted late in the legislative process that temporarily suspends the state’s Step Up to Quality rating system that child-care centers have to participate in to receive public money. They are asking for DeWine to issue a line-item veto of that suspension.
Nursing homes
For the nursing homes, money in HB 169 can be used on compensation, staff retention bonuses, overtime pay and shift differential payments, staff recruitment costs and new hire incentives. The bill explicitly says money cannot be used on contract workers, staffing agency workers, facility administrators, facility executive staff and facility owners.
These stipulations contrast House Bill 461, which had no guardrails around how the $300 million would have been spent, and was supported by the Ohio Academy for Senior Health Sciences, one of three nursing home lobbying groups on Ohio Capitol Square.
“Overall, we feel pretty happy to see this move forward, particularly by year’s end,” said Susan Wallace of LeadingAge Ohio, which represents mostly nonprofit nursing homes but was not behind HB 461. “It’s been a while that providers have received relief, and there’s been a real erosion in terms of the morale and honestly in the workforce.”
With aides and other employees quitting, nursing homes have increasingly used staffing agencies, which has helped in a pinch but isn’t ideal, Wallace said.
“You want consistent caregivers,” she said. “People who know you, who care for you better, are able to identify when you’re a little bit off today.”
HB 169 mostly spends money from the American Rescue Plan Act, the relief bill signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year. Some of the money the legislature is spending, however, comes from previous unspent COVID-19 money secured by Congress.
In addition to the $300 million going to nursing homes, the bill provides $23 million to hospice services and $33 million to assisted living facilities, which have also experienced staff challenges during the pandemic.
Child care
The legislature is spending $639 million in the nick of time. Under federal rules for the child-care funding, the legislature needed to spend $400 million of it by Saturday, or the federal government could demand its return and give it to another state.
Many Ohio child-care providers took out loans to stay in business during the pandemic since fewer children were using their centers, and many have said they would use the federal money to pay off the loans.
Child care advocates oppose temporarily getting rid of Step Up to Quality to receive public funds.
Step Up to Quality is a five-star rating system that began in 2012, which guides parents on child-care center quality. To participate and receive stars, programs must offer professional development, hire employees with certain levels of education, implement a research-based curriculum, offer family outreach activities and other activities that research shows prepare kids for kindergarten, said Katie Kelly, executive director of PRE4CLE, a Cleveland initiative to increase access to high-quality preschool.
To accept children who get public money for child care, programs must participate in Step Up to Quality. Except under HB 169, that state would suspend that requirement until Dec. 31, 2022.
Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman has advocated getting rid of the program, saying parents need more options during the pandemic.
But Kelly and other early child care providers argue that will create two tiers of children: Those ready for kindergarten and those who are not.
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