Through the remainder of the year in this space, ASA will recap the association’s efforts in successfully defeating or significantly mitigating proposed legislation that would have harmed the staffing industry.
Earlier this year, when the Ohio House of Representatives passed HB 33, the fiscal year 2023–24 budget bill, it contained language regulating nurse staffing firms—including language establishing rate caps and requiring nurse staffing firms to submit a schedule of rates to be charged to facilities.
When the bill was sent to the state Senate, ASA—along with member health care firms and Ohio lobbyist Andy Bowers of Park Street Law Group LLC—engaged key senators in an effort to have the nurse staffing-related language removed from the bill. Following several meetings and conversations, the efforts were successful as the bill was passed in the state Senate without the nurse staffing-related language.
When House and Senate leadership began negotiations to discuss what would be in the final bill, ASA remained engaged in the process and explained to leadership why rate caps and the reporting requirements would be harmful to the state’s health care system. Thanks to these and other efforts, the annual budget that was signed into law in Ohio did not include the nurse staffing-related language.
