equal-access-payment-practices

Reason(s) for non-compliance: • The Lead Agency does not pay all provider types prospectively or alternatively does not demonstrate that it is not a generally-accepted practice for all provider types, as required by 98.45(m)(1). (Plan Question 4.4.1a). Please note the Lead Agency has an approved waiver for this requirement through August 1, 2026. • The Lead Agency does not pay based on enrollment or alternatively does not provide justification that this is impracticable or is not a generally-accepted practice, as required by 98.45(m)(2). (Plan Question 4.4.1b). Please note the Lead Agency has an approved waiver for this requirement through August 1, 2026. Overall Target Completion Date: 08/01/2026 Action Step Number Action Step Description Target Completion Date 1 The Department of Children and Youth (DCY) will make the following changes to provider payment process: 1. Update the payment process from reimbursement based to providing payments prospectively. 2. Update the payment process from attendance- based to enrollment-based. DCY will request the additional funds required to cover the increased cost of the needed IT enhancements. These funds will be requested in the next budget cycle, beginning July 1, 2025. Ohio's budget requires legislative approval and operates on a biennial basis. 07/01/2025 2 Ohio law mandates reimbursement-based payments, which must be updated to allow for enrollment based prospective payments. This language is being proposed for updates in the upcoming budget and will not be in effect until July 1, 2025. 07/01/2025 3 DCY will make changes to Ohio Administrative Code to allow for an enrollment-based prospective payment method. The changes to OAC must coincide with the deployment of identified system enhancements. 08/01/2026 4 Updating the payment process from using an attendance-based reimbursement method to an enrollment-based prospective payments will require enhancements to the state IT systems that support the payment process. These systems include the Ohio Benefits (OB) system and the Time, Attendance, and Payment (TAP) system. 08/01/2026