Ohio’s Quality Payment Court Case — Payments Are Due Starting 7.1.23

Some have asked whether the Ohio Supreme Court ordered payment from July 1, 2023. It did.

In paragraph 17, the Court stated the associations sought an order requiring ODM to “calculate and pay all nursing-facility quality incentive payments, dating from July 1, 2023 forward.” The Court then said that request was, in the Court’s own words, the same as asking the Court to order ODM to comply with the reimbursement formula in R.C. 5165.26.

In paragraph 42, the Court granted the writ — ordering ODM to comply with the reimbursement formula in R.C. 5165.26.

There is no ambiguity here and no gap to fill. The Court did not leave the payment date open. It identified July 1, 2023 as the date the statutory duty attached, described the requested relief as payment from that date forward, and granted an order requiring compliance with the formula that created that duty. ODM does not get to treat the Court’s silence on a separate payment sentence as permission to start fresh from the date of the decision.

Mandamus does not create a new obligation. It compels obedience to one that already existed. ODM’s duty to pay under the correct formula began July 1, 2023. The writ enforces that duty.

ODM cannot convert its own delay into a discount on what the law required all along.