The Ohio Medicaid program is about to undergo major changes; the most dramatic since its inception in 1972.
The Medicaid program is a joint federal-state program administered by the State. Federal law sets basic standards and requirements for all programs, permitting State elections on a wide variety of financial and non-financial eligibility, benefit and recovery issues. Most States follow Supplemental Security Income (SSI) eligibility criteria to establish Medicaid eligibility. However, Ohio is one of 13 States that initially exercised an option not to use SSI criteria but instead adopted stricter eligibility standards. These stricter standards can be no more restrictive than the standards that were in effect in Ohio on January 1, 1972. Consequently, Ohio is known as a 209(b) State named after the section of the federal law allowing this State option.
However, Ohio will be terminating its 209(b) status and converting to an SSI State soon. This means that all the eligibility rules will be different along with the Medicaid application process. The scheduled date for change is July 1, 2016. I plan to schedule a seminar to go over the expected changes sometime this year. Please watch for upcoming newsletters for further details on these changes and a date for my seminar.