WiAHC has formally agreed to support Assembly Bill 23 and Senate Bill 39, companion bills that would create a state Palliative Care Council to advise the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) and create a palliative care consumer and professional information and education program.  The lead author of Assembly Bill 23 is State Representative Patrick Snyder (R-Wausau) and the lead author of Senate Bill 39 is state Senator Jesse James (R-Thorp).  The primary intent of this legislation is to improve awareness of and access to palliative care, as there are not enough health care providers who specialize in palliative care in Wisconsin.  Furthermore, there is a shortage of information on palliative care for practicing health care providers, patients, and their loved ones.  

During the week of March 10, both the Assembly and Senate versions of the palliative care council bill advanced in the Legislature.  On March 13, the Assembly Health Committee voted overwhelmingly to advance Assembly Bill 23.  The next day, the Senate Health Committee voted unanimously to approve the Senate companion bill – Senate Bill 39.  Both bills will now be referred to the full Assembly and Senate, respectively, for future legislative action.

WiAHC’s government relations team continues to aggressively lobby the Legislature to continue to move this legislation through the legislative process. 

On February 18, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (D) gave his biennial budget address to the Wisconsin Legislature.  During that speech, he outlined the priorities that are included in his FY2025-2027 budget request submitted to the Legislature at that time. 

The Governor and the Legislature will likely have considerable latitude in crafting a FY2025-2027 budget as the non-partisan Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) recently projected the state will have a $4.3 billion surplus at the start of fiscal year 2025, which is $300 million more than what the Evers Administration projected in November 2024. In addition, LFB also projected that the state government will receive an additional $1.85 billion in tax revenue during FY2025-2027 (biennium). 

It's also worth noting that the Governor’s budget request includes $2 billion in tax relief, including lowering property taxes, eliminating income taxes on tips, and eliminating sales taxes on “everyday expenses.”

This bill was immediately sent to the Wisconsin Legislature and referred to the budget-writing Joint Committee on Finance (JFC), which is controlled by Republicans and will very likely make major changes to it.  The next step is for JFC to hold public, in-person hearings in locations across the state to hear from Wisconsinites regarding their FY2025-2027 budget priorities.  These hearings generally occur in April.  Following that, the committee amends and votes on various portions of the budget during the May – June timeframe and then sends the consolidated budget bill to the full Assembly and Senate for votes on final passage.  The intention is for both chambers to pass the budget bill and send it to the Governor before the end of June, as the next fiscal year begins on July 1.

The following is a summary of Governor Evers’ FY2025-2027 budget priorities that will likely be of interest.  For additional details, please review the Budget in Brief document.   

DOING WHAT’S BEST FOR KIDS

• Do what's best for kids while supporting our economy, enabling workers to stay in Wisconsin's workforce, keeping provider doors open and bolstering staff, and lowering every day, out-of-pocket costs for working families by making child care more affordable statewide through Child Care Counts. Expand access to quality, affordable child care for Wisconsin's working families and kids by continuing the successful Child Care Counts program, providing $480 million over the biennium to make Child Care Counts a permanent state program and provide the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families with associated administrative resources.

• Provide $162,400 in fiscal year 2025-26 and more than $5.3 million in fiscal year 2026-27 and an additional 2.5 full-time positions to establish an employer-sponsored child care grant program to support businesses that choose to invest in child care for their employees.

BUILDING A 21^ST-CENTURY ECONOMY & WORKFORCE

• Propose nearly $2 billion in tax relief across the Governor's efforts to lower property taxes, exempt many everyday expenses from the sales tax, and cut income taxes for middle-class Wisconsinites.

• Hold the line on property taxes and prevent increases in tax bills on the typical Wisconsin homeowner in both years of the biennium by providing nearly $1.1 billion in aid to local governments and direct property tax credits to taxpayers over the biennium. Additionally, increase property tax relief programs under the individual income tax by $237 million over the biennium for veterans, seniors, those with disabilities, and others struggling to afford the property taxes on their homes. In total, these initiatives will provide over $1.3 billion in property tax relief to Wisconsinites over the biennium.

• Eliminate the sales tax on electricity and natural gas sold for residential use to help reduce energy costs for families. This provision will reduce sales taxes on Wisconsinites by $49.7 million in fiscal year 2025-26 and $105.9 million in fiscal year 2026-27.

• Provide more than $3 million over the biennium to support the Qualified Treatment Trainee Grant program, which facilitates the licensure and certification of those in the process of obtaining or already with a graduate degree in psychology, counseling, marriage and family therapy, social work, nursing, or a closely related field, to help address a shortage in the behavioral health workforce.

• Provide $4.3 million in fiscal year 2025-26 and $4.3 million in fiscal year 2026-27 to the WisCaregiver Career program, which addresses the shortage of certified nursing assistants in the state by supporting recruitment, training, and retention of individuals to care for nursing home residents across Wisconsin.

• Provide $7.5 million in fiscal year 2025-26 to support employer-based workforce development solutions with Provider Innovation Grants to increase workforce recruitment and retention.

• Provide $5 million over the biennium to fund healthcare provider training grants and make technical changes to existing grants.

• Expand the nurse educators’ program at the Higher Educational Aids Board and provide $4 million over the biennium to help increase the state's nursing workforce. This program provides forgivable loans to nursing professors who stay in Wisconsin to teach the next generation of nurses. Under the expansion, loans would be available to both full-time and part-time faculty, and to educators in allied health, behavioral health, dental health, and nursing.

• Create a pilot program in the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services to provide tuition reimbursement for former nurses who are not actively practicing but wish to participate in a nurse refresher course at a technical college. Provide $300,000 over the biennium to offset the costs of these courses.

• Increase the state's healthcare workforce by providing the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development with more than $2.25 million in fiscal year 2025-26 on a one-time basis to support a healthcare on-the-job learning reimbursement pilot program, with the goal of reducing financial barriers related to training apprentices in healthcare pathways. Additionally, provide $1.5 million in ongoing funding to be utilized for on-the-job reimbursement grants in all workforce industries.

• Provide $1 million over the biennium for a Wisconsin Fast Forward Health Care Industry Grant Program to support healthcare workforce development through apprenticeships, training programs, and innovative education models.

• Ensure the effective and efficient processing of license applications within the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services by providing more than $1.7 million over the biennium and an additional 10 full-time positions.

• Improve Wisconsin's ability to compete for, recruit, and retain workers by requiring that all private and local employers offer eight weeks of paid family and medical leave income replacement benefits. Additionally, ensure compliance with this directive by providing an additional one full-time position in fiscal year 2026-27 to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Equal Rights Division.

• Strengthen the enforcement of employment discrimination law prohibitions by allowing the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, or an individual who is alleged or was found to have been discriminated against, including on the basis of equal pay for equal work, or subjected to unfair honesty or genetic testing, to bring an action in circuit court to recover compensatory and punitive damages caused by an act of discrimination, unfair honesty testing, or unfair genetic testing in addition to or in lieu of filing an administrative complaint.

• Clarify that employment discrimination under the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act includes an employer asking about an applicant's conviction record before selecting them for an interview, with the intent to prevent qualified individuals from being unfairly screened out while still allowing employers to notify applicants of disqualifying convictions for certain positions.

• Allow the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services to adjust credential renewal schedules to better align with industry needs.

SUPPORTING HEALTHIER WISCONSINITES

• Expand Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act by covering all low-income Wisconsin residents who earn incomes between 0 percent and 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Medicaid Expansion will result in 95,800 low-income individuals becoming eligible for Medicaid, while saving $1.9 billion in state funding and drawing down an additional $2.5 billion in federal funding over the biennium.

• Establish parity provisions to ensure patients utilizing telehealth services are not charged or have their services limited any more than if they receive an equivalent in-person service to increase the availability and affordability of telehealth services.

ADDITIONAL KEY PRIORITIES

• Allow the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services and affiliated credentialing boards to streamline their licensure investigations when the underlying conduct is related to a subset of minor arrests, convictions, or other offenses to more efficiently credential individuals without sacrificing applicant quality.

The latest Marquette University Law School Poll surveyed 864 registered Wisconsin voters between February 19-26, 2025. The following are highlights:

Governor

• 49% of registered voters approve of the job Democratic Governor Tony Evers is doing, while 44% disapprove.
• That’s a slight dip from a 53-46 split in October.

Legislature

• 38% approve of the job the Legislature is doing, while 49% disapprove; it was 33-55 in September.

Wisconsin Supreme Court – April Election

• The poll found that 39% of the respondents had heard a lot about the Supreme Court race, while 42% said they had some familiarity with the race. Nearly one in five said they had not heard anything about the contest.

• Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel was viewed favorably by 29% of the registered voters and unfavorably by 32%. About two out of five said they had no opinion of him.

• His opponent, Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, was given favorable ratings by 19% of the voters, compared to 23% who viewed her unfavorably. Nearly three out of five said they don't know enough about her.

• 46% approve of the job the state Supreme Court is doing, while 37% disapprove; it was 44-40 in September.

U.S. Senate

• 40% have a favorable impression of U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Oshkosh), while 46% have a negative one.
• 46% have a favorable impression of U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison), while 48% have a negative one.

State Representative Patrick Snyder (R-Wausau) and state Senator Jesse James (R-Thorp), introduced legislation in the Assembly (Assembly Bill 23) and Senate (Senate Bill 39), respectively, which would create a state Palliative Care Council to advise the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) and create a palliative care consumer and professional information and education program.  Assembly Bill 23 has been referred to the Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care and Senate Bill 39 has been referred to the Senate Committee on Health.  We are sharing this information with you as many home health agencies also provide palliative care. 

The primary intent of this legislation is to improve awareness of and access to palliative care, as there are not enough health care providers who specialize in palliative care in Wisconsin.  Furthermore, there is a shortage of information on palliative care for practicing health care providers, patients, and their loved ones.   

The proposed palliative care council would work with DHS on analyzing existing palliative care programs, as well as identifying ways in which health care providers could improve the quality of life for patients throughout our state.  The council comprises 22 members representing diverse perspectives, including physicians, nurses, a spiritual care professional, palliative care patients or family members of such patients, a health insurance company representative with expertise in palliative care, and members of the Legislature.  The council would meet at least twice per year in various locations across the state.

Many other states have already taken the step of creating a palliative care advisory council or advisory group to increase awareness of access to this specialized type of care.  In fact, 22 other states from coast to coast have formed such entities. 

The Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care held a hearing on this bill on February 12, which is discussed below.

On February 12, the Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care held a hearing on Assembly Bill 23, a bill to create a Palliative Care Council.  At this hearing, numerous individuals testified regarding this bill.  In addition to state Representative Patrick Snyder (R-Wausau) and state Senator Jesse James (R-Thorp), who are the authors of this legislation, the following individuals testified in favor of the bill:

·        Siera Williams, RN, Director of Hospice and Palliative Care, Tomah Health

·        Michelle Theige, APNP, Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner, Tomah Health

·        Kimberly Casper, FNP-C, Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner, Tomah Health

·        Agron Ismaili, MD, Medical Director, VITAS Healthcare, Milwaukee

·        Carrie Schepp, General Manager, VITAS Healthcare, Milwaukee

·        Sara Sahli, Government Relations Director-Wisconsin, American Cancer Society

·        Kaylee Litchfield, RN, Palliative Care Nurse, UW Health

The testimony of bill supporters was well received by committee members.  In fact, no committee member – Republican or Democrat – made any remarks against this legislation. 

The other following organizations have formally registered their support for this bill, but did not testify at the hearing:

·        Alzheimer’s Association

·        Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources (GWAAR)

·        Mayo Clinic Health System

·        Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians

·        Wisconsin Academy of Physician Assistants

·        Wisconsin Medical Society

·        Wisconsin Nurses Association

In early February, the state Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) announced that it is the first multi-occupational licensing agency in the United States that now offers a digital occupational credential that may be downloaded to a smartphone.  For more information, please go to the DSPS website to obtain download directions.

Last October, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) held a two-day Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) innovation grants summit.  According to DHS, “organizations across Wisconsin, along with state and national experts, came together to showcase innovative programs, workshop ideas, and discuss the future of home and community-based services.”  DHS has now launched a dedicated website that includes content from the summit, which includes HCBS grant information and videos of various portions of the summit. 

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has recently opened up registration for the following statewide events:

·        Wisconsin Harm Reduction Conference– This event will be held at the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells on July 16-17, 2025.  This conference will focus on reducing harms associated with drug use.  More information about the conference can be found on the DHS website. 

·        Opioids, Stimulants, and Trauma Summit– This summit will be held at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells on May 6-8, 2025.  This annual summit will focus on prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery strategies related to opioids, stimulants, and trauma. More information is available on the DHS website. 

The State Assembly and State Senate convened on Monday, January 6 to kick off the 2025-2026 legislative session.  In the Assembly, Republicans hold 54 seats and Democrats hold 45 seats. In the Senate, Republicans hold 18 seats and Democrats hold 15 seats.