OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
H.B. 7 Bill Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for H.B. 7’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Passed by the House
Primary Sponsors: Reps. White and Humphrey
Effective date:
Erika Kramer, Attorney
SUMMARY
Pregnancy and postpartum mobile application
 Requires the Department of Health (ODH), in collaboration with the Department of
Medicaid (ODM), to issue a request for proposals for the creation of a mobile
application that provides information and resources to pregnant and postpartum
women in Ohio who are eligible for Medicaid.
 Appropriates $500,000 in both FY 2024 and FY 2025 to be used for the creation of the
mobile application.
Healthy Beginnings at Home
 Appropriates $5 million in FY 2024 and $3 million in FY 2025 to support stable housing
initiatives for pregnant mothers and to improve maternal and infant health outcomes.
Infant vitality supports
 Requires ODM to conduct a study regarding the reimbursement of evidence-based peer-
to-peer programming that supports infant vitality.
 Appropriates $1 million in both FY 2024 and FY 2025 to fund Centering Pregnancy
services and other evidence-based and evidence-informed group pregnancy education
programs and targeted outreach in areas of the state where there are gaps in those
services.
 Appropriates $1 million in both FY 2024 and FY 2025 to establish a community-based
grant program to expand access to infant vitality supports.
Help Me Grow
 Revises the law governing Help Me Grow, including by requiring the Department of
Children and Youth (ODCY) to streamline its central intake and referral system to ensure
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that services are received from home visiting programs using evidence-based or
evidence-informed models, such as the Early Head Start Home-Based Option.
 Appropriates $5 million in FY 2024 and $3 million in FY 2025 to assist Help Me Grow, as
well as other provisions described below including awareness of parenting programs
and expanding fatherhood programs.
Early Intervention Part C
 Requires Early Intervention (EI) Part C rules to deem infants born before 28 weeks of
gestational age eligible for EI without other required conditions.
 Requires EI rules to grant to infants born between 28-38 weeks gestational age home
visiting services, including a developmental screening, and if appropriate, a referral for
EI services.
 Requires the ODCY to include information regarding the above services in its annual
report and provide a copy to the General Assembly.
 Appropriates $2 million in FY 2024 to provide early intervention services to infants born
before 28 weeks of gestational age and infants born between 28-38 weeks of
gestational age.
WIC enrollment
 Requires ODH to investigate and determine the feasibility of incorporating a variety of
changes to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and
Children (WIC) enrollment and benefit distribution processes.
 Requires ODH to submit a report to the General Assembly detailing the results of its
investigation.
 Appropriates $2.0 million in both FY 2024 and FY 2025 to support these efforts.
Early childhood mental health services
 Requires the Medicaid Director, by June 30, 2025, to evaluate and update the Medicaid
program’s coverage of evidence-based mental health and dyadic family therapy services
for young children and their caregivers.
 Requires the evaluation and updates to address mental health screening for mothers
and young children and include follow-up for family dyadic therapies and other child
mental health services for those with identified risk.
 Requires the Medicaid Director to develop policy and billing guidance for Medicaid
providers regarding the coverage.
 Requires the Medicaid Director to submit a report to the Governor and the General
Assembly with specified information about the coverage.
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Medical legal partnership grant program
 Requires ODH to establish a program to award grants to legal service organizations and
medical providers that partner together to identify pregnant women, mothers, and
children in need of legal services and to provide them with those services.
 Appropriates $1 million in both FY 2024 and FY 2025 to be used for grant awards.
Head Start and Step Up to Quality
 Requires the Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) to rate each licensed child
day-care center and family day-care home operating a Head Start or Early Head Start
program in the Step Up to Quality tier that ODJFS has determined corresponds with
minimum Head Start or National Association for the Education of Young Children
standards.
Resiliency grant pilot program
 Requires ODJFS to establish a pilot program to assist in the development of quality,
comprehensive child care programs like Early Head Start across Ohio, with an emphasis
on communities experiencing both high infant mortality rates and limited access to child
care, for families at risk of being part of the child welfare system.
 Appropriates $3 million in both FY 2024 and FY 2025 to fund the program.
Parenting programs
 Requires ODJFS to develop strategies for state agencies to use in informing parents,
caregivers, and child care providers about evidence-based parenting education
programs, such as “Triple P,” and to promote their benefits.
 Requires ODCY to use some of the Help Me Grow funds appropriated by the bill to also
support these efforts.
Doula services
 Establishes a program in the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction for certified
doulas to provide doula services to inmates participating in a prison nursery program.
Designation
 Designates the above provisions as the Strong Foundations Act.
Hearing aid coverage
 Requires health plan issuers to cover hearing aids and related services for persons
21 years of age and younger.
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As Passed by the House
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pregnancy and postpartum mobile application ............................................................................. 4
Healthy Beginnings at Home........................................................................................................... 6
Infant vitality supports .................................................................................................................... 6
Help Me Grow ................................................................................................................................. 6
Interagency agreements ............................................................................................................. 7
Comprehensive screening and connection program .................................................................. 7
Central intake and referral system .............................................................................................. 7
Data verification codes ........................................................................................................... 7
Priority recipients ........................................................................................................................ 7
Evidence-based home visiting models ........................................................................................ 8
Online services ............................................................................................................................ 8
Annual reports and evaluation.................................................................................................... 8
Workforce capacity ..................................................................................................................... 8
Appropriation .............................................................................................................................. 8
Early Intervention Part C ................................................................................................................. 9
Annual report .............................................................................................................................. 9
WIC enrollment ............................................................................................................................. 10
Medicaid coverage of early childhood mental health services .................................................... 10
Report ........................................................................................................................................ 11
Medical legal partnership grant program ..................................................................................... 11
Head Start and Step Up to Quality................................................................................................ 11
Resiliency grant pilot program ...................................................................................................... 12
Parenting programs ...................................................................................................................... 12
Doula Services ............................................................................................................................... 13
Doula program – Department of Rehabilitation and Correction .............................................. 13
Future operation of the doula program .................................................................................... 13
Hearing aid coverage .................................................................................................................... 13
Exemption from review by the Superintendent of Insurance .................................................. 14
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Pregnancy and postpartum mobile application
H.B. 7 requires the Department of Health (ODH) to create an Ohio-tailored,
membership-based mobile application for Medicaid-eligible pregnant and postpartum women.
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As Passed by the House
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ODH must collaborate with the Department of Medicaid (ODM) to issue a request for proposals
to onboard the application. The selected vendor must be able to provide the following:1
 Education, resources, and support to pregnant women and their families in multiple
languages;
 Ohio-specific information, including links to ODM and other state programs and
resources available to pregnant and postpartum women;
 A consistent workflow to increase awareness of state programs and resources available
to users of the application;
 The capability for ODM and other state agencies to ask specific questions to users of the
application;
 The capability for ODM to share specific content and resources with users of the
application;
 Information and resources that meet acceptable U.S. clinical standards, including
standards defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National
Institutes of Health, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the
American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics;
 An application that is available in multiple languages to provide access to as many users
as possible;
 Regular aggregate, deidentified data reported to ODH and ODM including (1) the
number of Medicaid-eligible users of the application, (2) the number of users engaging
with Ohio-specific content, (3) the number of users seeking additional information
about enrollment in Medicaid or other resources, (4) the number of monthly and daily
application users, (5) the average length of time spent on the application, and (6) any
other information required by ODH and ODM;
 Access to the application on both iOS and Android platforms; and
 Any other deliverables determined by ODH and ODM.
One year and two years after the effective date of this section, ODH is required to
submit a report to the General Assembly summarizing the data reported to ODH and ODM by
the selected vendor.
The bill appropriates $500,000 in both FY 2024 and 2025 in GRF line item 440484, Public
Health Technology Innovation, to be used for the creation of this mobile application.2
1 Section 8.
2 Section 14.
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Healthy Beginnings at Home
The bill appropriates $5 million in FY 2024 and $3 million in FY 2025 in GRF line item
830402, Healthy Beginnings at Home, to be used by the Department of Children and Youth
(ODCY), in coordination with ODH, to support stable housing initiatives for pregnant mothers
and to improve maternal and infant health outcomes.
The bill also requires the Department to submit a report to the General Assembly within
one year of the section’s effective date detailing the number of families served by stable
housing initiatives, the number and type of services provided, and outcome metrics including
health and developmental outcomes.3
Infant vitality supports
H.B. 7 requires ODM to study how evidence-based peer-to-peer programming that
supports infant vitality can be reimbursed through the Medicaid program. The results of this
study must be submitted to the General Assembly one year after the section’s effective date.4
The bill appropriates a total of $2 million in both FYs 2024 and 2025 in GRF line item
830404, Infant Vitality, under ODCY. Of this amount, $1 million in each fiscal year is to be used
to fund Centering Pregnancy services and similar evidence-based and evidence-informed group
education programs and targeted outreach to at-risk pregnant mothers and mothers of infants
in areas of the state where there are gaps in such services. Centering Pregnancy is group
prenatal care that includes health assessments and group discussion.5 The ODCY Director is
responsible for determining where there are gaps in services. Funding must be targeted first to
areas of the state with the highest levels of infant and maternal mortality. The remaining
$1 million in each fiscal year is to be used to establish a community-based grant program to
expand access to infant vitality supports.6
Help Me Grow
The bill modifies in several ways the law governing Help Me Grow, Ohio’s evidence-
based parent support program to encourage early prenatal and well-baby care and to provide
parenting education to promote the comprehensive health and development of children. 7 Each
change is described below. Beginning January 1, 2025, Help Me Grow program administration
transfers from ODH to ODCY, so this analysis section refers only to ODCY.
3 Section 16.
4 Section 10.
5Centering Pregnancy, which may be accessed by conducting a keyword “pregnancy” search on the
Centering Healthcare Institute website: centeringhealthcare.org.
6 Section 16.
7 R.C. 3701.61 and 3701.611 and, beginning January 1, 2025, R.C. 5180.21 and 5180.22.
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As Passed by the House
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Interagency agreements
The bill requires, rather than authorizes as under current law, ODCY to enter into
interagency agreements with one or more state agencies, including the Department of Job and
Family Services (ODJFS), the Department of Developmental Disabilities, ODM, the Commission
on Minority Health, the Ohio Fatherhood Commission, and the Children’s Trust Fund Board to
implement Help Me Grow and to ensure coordination of early childhood programs. The bill also
directs that the interagency agreements be entered into in order to maximize reimbursement
for Help Me Grow from any federal source.
Comprehensive screening an