20 % Pay Cut for Ohio Independent Providers

U.S.A. Ohio

Published

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?

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

Interesting thought!!!!! Perhaps more job security as well? Just thinking out loud here. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad for nurses if the government did take over healthcare? I'm sure there would be good and bad if that were to happen, but really, can this country afford to lose more nurses because nobody wants to enter the field anymore, and nurses leaving the field because it's not worth the stress anymore? How can we expect to have enough people to take care of our sick, dying, mentally ill, without supporting the nurses we have and our future nurses? We need support not just financially, but our own healthcare needs (we need to be healthy too), education (we need to stay educated to remain competent), emotional (nobody likes being a punching bag without someone there to back you up).....I think I can keep going on and on. An awful lot is expected from us as nurses, all the while more is being stripped from us, and yet we are expected to smile and take it gracefully. I don't see government employees leaving their jobs because they are treated so terribly, but that may be just my perception.

Specializes in Cardiology and ER Nursing.
EXACTLY!

It's not just this, but there is a lot of stuff going in the next state budget that isn't quite kosher.

Right, like the idea that we won't get paid if our patients don't perceive their care was good enough....and the reason that our hospital is going to fold is because we aren't doing our jobs well enough or that we aren't nice enough to them

I don't understand this. Are you private duty? Are your wages based on MA reimbursement rates? What exactly program is this coming from? One agency I worked for was part of the Medicaid Waiver program where they provided private duty services as a waiver to going into a nursing home. Is that what you are talking about?

The whole thing stinks and I know they are looking at reimbursement cuts to home care, so this may lead to pay cuts in that area too. In fact, just as schools are looking at pay cuts I think hospitals may soon follow suit. Sorry to say it, but they can't help but watch what happens in other fields and get ideas from it.

"...this is coming down from Medicare/Medicaid, who seem to dictate everything..."

Get used to it. As Big Government gets bigger, we are all diminshed. And yes, the Unions do have something to do with it. The goal of course, is to force independents into the unionized home care providers by forcing you out of buisness. The unions always work for a company, never as independents, so by taking care of the home care companies, the unions power is increased. Nurses have been used by the unions who have, at their very core, Socialists and Communists; nurses will ultimately be victimized by them, but that comes later, when there is nobody left to object. Check out keywiki dot com and search for nurses, NNU, SEIU, CPUSA and Committees of Correspondence and you will see what we are up against.

Specializes in LTC , MR/DD, school, home health.

I am an IP in Ohio and this pay cut, I believe, is the first step to get rid of IP's.

When the state gets rid of the IP's they can then cut all their staff that is used to support the program. This will save them the most money. The agencies "police" their own nurses and the state "polices" (audits, reviews, billing issues, etc...) the IP's. If there are no more IP's the state no longer needs all that staff amd therefore, saves money.

As for me, I am quitting. I drive an hour to my pt's house each way, and with a 20% pay cut it will no longer be a good financial plan for me. I can make $18 an hour two blocks from my house. I have been with my pt for over 9 yrs and her family is very upset but they understand my situation. They will now have to use agency and the agencies never have any nurses or they send "less than desirable" nurses that the family doesn't trust. They are not the only family/pt that will have to change to agency for several other IP's I know are also quitting because of the drastic pay cut.

:coollook:

The consumers needed to complain BEFORE the bill was signed and not enough did. Maybe after enough IP's quit the consumers will start complaining so much that the state will reverse it but, I doubt it.

It is very sad for the consumers and the IP's. I'm sad because I am forced to leave my beautiful little pt that I love dearly and she

is very attached to me. Her family is just sick over it. The whole situation is horrid. This was a very bad decision for Ohio and the results are not going to be good.

You might be wondering, why I don't just go work for the agency and keep my pt? Well the agency will only pay me $17.50 an hour.

It's bad in Ohio even for us that work at agency's. Mine cut shift diff, weekend pay and holiday pay. No raises given in the last 3 years, But sure love the work and clients

Specializes in Home Healthcare.
I don't understand this. Are you private duty? Are your wages based on MA reimbursement rates? What exactly program is this coming from? One agency I worked for was part of the Medicaid Waiver program where they provided private duty services as a waiver to going into a nursing home. Is that what you are talking about?

This is the Ohio Home Care Medicaid Waiver Program. Wages are a set rate which were determined by the state. We work only in clients homes, not nursing homes.

Specializes in Home Healthcare.
I am an IP in Ohio and this pay cut, I believe, is the first step to get rid of IP's.

When the state gets rid of the IP's they can then cut all their staff that is used to support the program. This will save them the most money. The agencies "police" their own nurses and the state "polices" (audits, reviews, billing issues, etc...) the IP's. If there are no more IP's the state no longer needs all that staff amd therefore, saves money.

As for me, I am quitting. I drive an hour to my pt's house each way, and with a 20% pay cut it will no longer be a good financial plan for me. I can make $18 an hour two blocks from my house. I have been with my pt for over 9 yrs and her family is very upset but they understand my situation. They will now have to use agency and the agencies never have any nurses or they send "less than desirable" nurses that the family doesn't trust. They are not the only family/pt that will have to change to agency for several other IP's I know are also quitting because of the drastic pay cut.

:coollook:

The consumers needed to complain BEFORE the bill was signed and not enough did. Maybe after enough IP's quit the consumers will start complaining so much that the state will reverse it but, I doubt it.

It is very sad for the consumers and the IP's. I'm sad because I am forced to leave my beautiful little pt that I love dearly and she

is very attached to me. Her family is just sick over it. The whole situation is horrid. This was a very bad decision for Ohio and the results are not going to be good.

You might be wondering, why I don't just go work for the agency and keep my pt? Well the agency will only pay me $17.50 an hour.

Yes, the consumers needed to complain before the bill was signed. They were our ONLY voice behind us. I understand many are very concerned they are going to lose their independent provider nurse or aide and making their voices heard now. But now is too late. It is very sad for IPs and the families. Families are losing their right to choose a IP......there will be very few left. This was a very well thought out plan do get rid of IPs and basically let agencies run a muck. Follow the money....

I wonder if the Home Care Council and Carestar thought about how the 20% pay reduction for IP nurses / aides would affect our ability to support our families and put food on the table, when they rallied for the agencies in Ohio, but not for us. Independents did not create us to provide services, the Home Care Waiver Program created us to provide services, because families had a right to choose. With us gone, their choice is gone.....they will have to have agency in the home.

I am so sorry your consumer will lose you because of this.

Specializes in Home Healthcare.
On the other hand, federal employees have very, very good benefits.

Independent providers have never received any type of benefit coverage from the state. We provide a services to their home care consumers and they pay us directly, but never had and never will let us become state employees. Many IPs I have spoken to have told me, they always counted on that first hour of pay every day, so they could put it away to pay for their health insurance. Losing 20% on that 1st hour and every hour after is a big blow. How the people who were instrumental in doing this to us can look in the mirror at themselves, is beyond me. I suppose it is easy for them, since they are not the ones suffering.

"the Home Care Waiver Program created us to provide services" because why---The Government is God-like? The Lord, er, Government giveth and the Govt. taketh away. If you look back, IPs were probably enlisted to solve a problem of even finding providers willing to serve these clients and also to save money over home care agencies. So why change now? Because they CAN. It's the politics of the Mailed Fist.

Specializes in Home Healthcare.
"the Home Care Waiver Program created us to provide services" because why---The Government is God-like? The Lord, er, Government giveth and the Govt. taketh away. If you look back, IPs were probably enlisted to solve a problem of even finding providers willing to serve these clients and also to save money over home care agencies. So why change now? Because they CAN. It's the politics of the Mailed Fist.

How TRUE!

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