Hocking County joins hospital consortium to boost Medicaid reimbursements; commissioners approve CDBG application and multiple budget actions

Hocking County commissioners on June 5 voted to join a multi-county hospital consortium designed to pool a local hospital tax and use the funds to seek increased federal Medicaid matching dollars, and they approved application materials for federally funded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) projects for the City of Logan and the Village of Laurelville.

The commissioners approved a resolution to join the consortium and unanimously appointed a county commissioner (referred to in the meeting as “Drew”) to represent Hocking County on the multi-county effort. County staff said the program would require hospitals to remit a local tax to the county; those funds would be aggregated and used to generate additional state and federal Medicaid reimbursement. County officials said the hospital CEO and CFO had endorsed the plan. The motion to join the consortium passed on a roll-call vote with all commissioners voting yes.

The meeting also included the county’s second public hearing required for the 2025 CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) Small Cities application and a vote to approve and sign three application documents: the residential anti-displacement and relocation assistance plan (which requires a signature and resolution number), an environmental review certification, and authorizing legislation on county letterhead. The county described two projects under consideration for the block grant application: a Neighborhood Revitalization Grant (NRG) for the City of Logan and a Critical Infrastructure Grant (CIG) for the Village of Laurelville. The county provided the following budget estimates and allocation-match figures during the hearing as part of the application materials: City of Logan NRG estimated total cost $787,600 (construction funds $700,000; administration $50,000; allocation match $37,600); Village of Laurelville critical infrastructure project estimated total cost $582,405 (construction $470,000; administration $30,000; allocation match $82,400).…