State officials say they will delay submitting a plan to the federal government to overhaul the Medicaid eligibility process for about 700,000 Ohioans who receive the tax-funded health services.
They say the holdup is partly due to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
Greg Moody, the director of the governor's Office of Health Transformation, says Ohio must first decide whether to opt out of the Medicaid expansion contained in the law. That decision will affect what eligibility changes state officials submit to the federal government.
Moody said the state's overall goal to streamline the complicated, lengthy eligibility process remains unchanged. And officials still want any eligibility changes to take effect by 2014.
Officials had planned to submit the proposal for federal approval this month.