Ohio bills signed into law

Ohio Governor John Kasich signed twelve bills into law last week including:

SB23 ADOPTION RECORDS – Outright repealing the laws that permit post-1963 adoptees who became available or potentially available for adoption prior to September 18, 1996 to file a petition in probate court to obtain information  about the adoptee's biological family, and replaces those repealed laws with a procedure in which adopted persons who are at least 18 years of age may submit a written request to the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) for  ODH to provide the adopted person with a copy of the contents of the person's adoption file.  [ Bill & Analysis ]

 SB200 VOTER REGISTRATION DATABASE – Clarifies that the Office of the Secretary of State must administer the statewide voter registration database & prescribe by rule the format in which the boards of elections must send voter registration records to the Secretary of State; and requires state agencies,  including the Department of Health, Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Department of Job and Family Services, and the Department of Rehabilitation and  Correction, to provide any information and data to the Secretary of State that is collected in the course of normal business and is necessary to register to vote, to update an elector's registration, or to maintain the statewide voter registration database.  [ Bill & Analysis ] 

SB206    MEDICAID – Requires the Director of Medicaid to implement a reform to the  Medicaid program that limits the growth in the per recipient per month cost of the program., so as the cost growth for a fiscal biennium be not more than the lesser of: (1) The average annual increase in the Consumer Price Index medical inflation rate for the Midwest Region for the most recent three-year period, weighted by the most recent year of the three years; and (2) The projected medical inflation rate determined by an actuary under contract with the Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee (JMOC) or, if JMOC disagrees with the actuary's rate, the projected  medical inflation rate that JMOC determines.  [Bill & Analysis ]

HB126  HEALTH CARE POWER OF ATTORNEY-LIVING WILL – Permits a durable power of attorney for health care to authorize the attorney in fact, commencing upon the instrument's execution or at any subsequent time and regardless of whether the principal has lost the capacity to make health care decisions, to obtain information concerning the principal's health; if authorized  as provided in the preceding permits the attorney in fact, commencing upon the instrument's execution or at any subsequent time specified in the instrument and regardless of whether the principal has lost the capacity to make health care decisions, to obtain information concerning the principal's health, and further authorizes a principal in a durable power of attorney for health care to and nominate a guardian of the principal's person, estate, or both for a court's consideration if proceedings for the appointment of such guardian are commenced at a later time and provides that the principal's nomination of such a guardian is revoked by the principal's subsequent nomination of a guardian of  the principal's person, estate, or both. [ Bill & Analysis ]