The House and Senate continued budget negotiations Monday after a week of offers and counter offers, trying to work out differences between the spending plans that each chamber has passed.

The House agreed to a Senate proposal to spend about $900,000 in state money to cover hearing aids, something the Legislature cut spending for a few years ago when times were tight.

"We've been trying to get that back for three years," said Karen Woodall, a social services advocate who pushes for increased Medicaid coverage for the poor.

The House and Senate had already agreed to restore Medicaid coverage of two other critical needs for many poor elderly: eyeglasses and partial dentures. Restoring vision coverage will cost the state about $3.8 million, and restoring partial dentures will cost about $2.8 million.

On Monday, House and Senate budget negotiators also agreed on how much to spend on the KidCare program, which provides state-subsidized low-cost health coverage to children without insurance.

Last year the Legislature spent $531 million on the program, but had far more money than was needed to cover its enrollment. Lawmakers agreed to reduce spending on the program by $169 million to $363 million, which they estimate would cover about 228,000 children, about 35,000 more than the program currently covers.

The House and Senate also agreed to put $1 million into program aimed at trying to boost enrollment through community outreach.

Budget negotiators also have worked out a compromise on how much to spend on nursing home care, which is mostly paid for by Medicaid, including money to boost the number of hours nurses' assistants care for patients each day.

Currently homes must provide at least 2.6 hours of care per day. With the new money, nursing homes will be required to average 2.9 hours of care. If staffing were to drop to 2.8 hours on one day - because of a shortage of help, for example - the home would be able to make it up by going to 3 hours on another day.

The House and Senate also agreed to put $27 million into a rate increase for nursing homes, far less than what homes have said they need. Nursing homes have seen their Medicaid reimbursement cut in recent years, and even when it is increased, they often complain that they still lose money on each patient.

It appears this year will be no different. Nursing home industry lobbyist Tony Marshall said the agreement on nursing home rates wasn't enough.

"They've essentially done about half of what we believed was appropriate," Marshall said.

Some health care items remained to be worked out as lawmakers started the next-to-last-week of their annual legislative session. Agreeing on a budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 is the one thing the Legislature must do each year. Each chamber's total proposed budget is roughly $70 billion.

Also over the weekend, the House and Senate tentatively agreed to put $2 million toward the start up of a planned new medical school at the University of Central Florida.

The total state pricetag for the school is expected to be about $200 million over the next decade.

By David Royse
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/14417393.htm