Medicaid Voucher Pilot Program

Adds provisions to the Senate-passed version of the bill to do the following:

· Require that the Director of Job and Family Services, when submitting the Medicaid waiver request to the federal government for the Medicaid Voucher Pilot Program,[1] seek a spending authorization to pay for the cost of "medically-necessary home and community-based services" rather than just "medically-necessary health care services."

· Modify the requirements a person must meet to be eligible to participate in the Medicaid Voucher Pilot Program.

Conditional status service and support administrators employed by county boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities

Adds provisions to the Senate-passed version of the bill to do the following:

· Permit a person who does not hold at least an appropriate associate degree to be employed by a county board of mental retardation and developmental disabilities as a "conditional status service and support administrator" if the person (1) was employed by a county board and performed service and support administration duties on June 30, 2005, and (2) holds either a high school diploma or a general educational development (GED) certificate of high school equivalence.

· Excludes professional employees who are service and support administrators from the persons who can supervise conditional status service and support administrators while such persons perform the duties of service and support administration.

Membership of the Medicaid Administrative Study Council

Adds a provision to the Senate-passed version of the bill to add four new members to the 18-member Medicaid Administrative Study Council: (1) two members of the House of Representatives, one from each political party, both appointed by the Speaker of the House and (2) two members of the Senate, one from each political party, both appointed by the Senate President.

S0087-126.doc/ss 11/07/05

[1] The main appropriations bill enacted by the 126th General Assembly in June 2005 (Am. Sub. H.B. 66) requires the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) to request a federal Medicaid waiver authorizing ODJFS to create a pilot program under which not more than 200 individuals receive a spending authorization to pay for the cost of "medically-necessary health care services" the pilot program covers.