On November 6, voters across the country made their way to the polls to exercise their civic duty. Since public policy can impact our lives at all levels of government, voting is important and elections have consequences. Within state government, Republicans maintained control of both chambers in the General Assembly and every non-judicial statewide office. Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine will be Ohio’s next governor. His victory will likely result in less hectic end-of-year legislative work in the Ohio General…

by Andrew Yogmour, OCHCH Policy & Advocacy Director Should I get involved in advocacy?  Do elected officials actually care what I have to say?  Aren’t there people being paid to advocate on my behalf? The answer to all of these questions is, “Yes!” After spending about seven years working in the Ohio House of Representatives, the importance of grassroots advocacy cannot be stressed enough in words. You might be asking yourself, “What’s grassroots advocacy?”  Grassroots advocacy involves advocating for or…

Recently, President Trump signed H.R. 6042 into law, extending the deadline for states to comply with the Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) mandate by one year from January 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020. The bill does not require states to delay implementation of EVV but delays the Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) reduction for states that do not come into compliance with EVV implementation requirements. The Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) has already indicated it’s not planning to move the current timeline. As such, it’s critical…