20 % Pay Cut for Ohio Independent Providers

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Specializes in Home Healthcare.

Any Ohio IP nurses out there? Just wondering what your thoughts are about our wages being cut by 20%. For homecare agencies their 1st hour is only being cut by 5%, while our 1st hour is being cut by 20% for doing the same work. Then for every hour after the 1st hour, agency will keep their full pay rate. Every hour after the 1st hour for independent providers will be cut by 20%, so agencies can continue to receive their full rate!

Anyone else feel the state is trying to get rid of us? 20%.....hmmn!

For Agency: (1) Effective October 1, 2011, reduce the medicaid program's first-hour-unit price for aide services to ninety-seven per cent of the price paid on June 30, 2011, and for nursing services to ninety-five percent of the price paid on June 30, 2011;

For Independent Providers: (2) Effective October 1, 2011, pay for a service that is an aide service or a nursing service provided by an independent provider eighty percent of the price it pays for the same service provided by a provider that is not an independent provider.

Oh, this was called "Victory for Home Care"

"The administration was able to reduce the cuts for agencies by reducing the rates paid to independent providers. Aside from receiving the 5% and 3% cuts on first hours for nurses and aides respectively, all Independent Providers will receive 20% less than the price paid to home care agencies, on the first hour and subsequent unit rates. The funds saved by this reduction will be used by the state to offset the cuts that were proposed for the first hour rates."

As independent provider nurses we do the same work, but yet we will no longer be receiving the same pay as agency. Anyone else out there think something is going on?

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Specializes in Addiction, Psych, Geri, Hospice, MedSurg.

I was just responding to another post and said this was one of my fears. With the new healthcare law, the gov't is going to get more involved in wages, I'm afraid...

Almost like we will become fed employees and have a base pay... I am keeping that in mind for my future education...

I don't think this will go over very well. With the economy there are pay freezes, but hardly pay cuts such as this. It is absolutely stunning, and they will find themselves without employees soon, I would think.

Sorry this has affected you. It sucks!

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

Follow the campaign contributions . . .

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How about this new "pay for service"? As it is being described to us by our nurse manager, if our patients don't rate our service (friendliness of nurses, receive help as soon as you want it, etc.) as "always" blah, blah, blah...we won't get paid. The examples we are being given are that if a patient is called for a survey and the answer that the nurses were "usually" friendly, and not "always" friendly, we don't get paid. Or, if the nurses don't "always" explain all information about drugs, maybe the patient says "usually", we don't get paid. Would this fly if I walked into a McDonald's and said, "Your clerk here didn't smile at me the way I wanted her to smile at me. I'm not paying for my Big Mac"?

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Specializes in Home Healthcare.
Follow the campaign contributions . . .

EXACTLY!

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Specializes in Home Healthcare.

"How about this new "pay for service"? "

That is too funny! It seems like somewhere, someone is always looking for a way not to pay us nurses.

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Specializes in Addiction, Psych, Geri, Hospice, MedSurg.
How about this new "pay for service"? As it is being described to us by our nurse manager, if our patients don't rate our service (friendliness of nurses, receive help as soon as you want it, etc.) as "always" blah, blah, blah...we won't get paid. The examples we are being given are that if a patient is called for a survey and the answer that the nurses were "usually" friendly, and not "always" friendly, we don't get paid. Or, if the nurses don't "always" explain all information about drugs, maybe the patient says "usually", we don't get paid. Would this fly if I walked into a McDonald's and said, "Your clerk here didn't smile at me the way I wanted her to smile at me. I'm not paying for my Big Mac"?

Yeah, I would NOT be working with that company... OMG!!!! RIDICULOUS!

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Specializes in Home Healthcare.
How about this new "pay for service"? As it is being described to us by our nurse manager, if our patients don't rate our service (friendliness of nurses, receive help as soon as you want it, etc.) as "always" blah, blah, blah...we won't get paid. The examples we are being given are that if a patient is called for a survey and the answer that the nurses were "usually" friendly, and not "always" friendly, we don't get paid. Or, if the nurses don't "always" explain all information about drugs, maybe the patient says "usually", we don't get paid. Would this fly if I walked into a McDonald's and said, "Your clerk here didn't smile at me the way I wanted her to smile at me. I'm not paying for my Big Mac"?

I was just responding to another post and said this was one of my fears. With the new healthcare law, the gov't is going to get more involved in wages, I'm afraid...

Almost like we will become fed employees and have a base pay... I am keeping that in mind for my future education...

I don't think this will go over very well. With the economy there are pay freezes, but hardly pay cuts such as this. It is absolutely stunning, and they will find themselves without employees soon, I would think.

Sorry this has affected you. It sucks!

Well, I am not understanding how you can pay one group of nurses providing the same services for medicaid waiver home care clients 20% less per hour. For this to be called a VICTORY is a slap in the face to independent provider nurses. We have families to support, bills to pay, ect..

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Neither would I, except that we are being told that this is coming down from Medicare/Medicaid, who seem to dictate everything that we do.

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Specializes in Addiction, Psych, Geri, Hospice, MedSurg.
Neither would I, except that we are being told that this is coming down from Medicare/Medicaid, who seem to dictate everything that we do.

That's the gov't ENTITLEMENT program. Slam the ones working... and let the others reap all the benefits without paying. (don't jump on me, not trying to be political, but this is what I see from it).

It sucks. I don't like unions... and unions are usually for big gov't... guess we need to start a union AGAINST the gov't.

~Demy

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.
I was just responding to another post and said this was one of my fears. With the new healthcare law, the gov't is going to get more involved in wages, I'm afraid...

Almost like we will become fed employees and have a base pay... I am keeping that in mind for my future education...

On the other hand, federal employees have very, very good benefits.

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That's the gov't ENTITLEMENT program. Slam the ones working... and let the others reap all the benefits without paying. (don't jump on me, not trying to be political, but this is what I see from it).

It sucks. I don't like unions... and unions are usually for big gov't... guess we need to start a union AGAINST the gov't.

~Demy

It does suck. And yet here the gov't/administrations, etc. are wondering how in the world they are gonna fix the problems. Hmmmm.....seems to me they are creating new problems, not fixing existing ones.

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