On Friday, February 20, the Wisconsin State Assembly concluded its work for the 2025-2026 regular legislative session and the state Senate is expected to conclude their final action on March 17.

As this is written, the Legislature approved the following bills of interest to WIHPCA:

Senate Bill 264 (Requires health insurers to cover diagnostic breast exams and screening exams for those at increased risk of breast cancer ) passed the Legislature.

• This bill also requires such screenings to be covered by Medicaid.

• SB264 passed the Assembly on February 19 by a vote of 96-0. It passed the Senate on October 14, 2025, by a vote of 32-1. It will subsequently go to the Governor for his consideration.

Senate Bill 417 (Visitation of a long-term care facility resident or hospital patient during a communicable disease outbreak) passed the Legislature.

• Under this bill, if an assisted living facility, nursing home, or hospital limits visitors due to an outbreak or epidemic of a communicable disease, the facility must allow certain visits with residents or patients of the facility.

• The bill allows such a facility to deny visitation with a resident or patient by a member of the clergy or an essential visitor for various reasons, including if:

o the member of the clergy or essential visitor refuses to comply with health and safety policies;

o it is unknown if the member of the clergy or essential visitor is contagious with a communicable disease and adequate precautions are not available to prevent them from infecting others;

o the resident or patient is known or suspected to be contagious with a communicable disease and adequate precautions are not available to prevent them from infecting others; or

o the resident or patient does not wish to visit with the member of the clergy or essential visitor.

• SB417 passed the Assembly on February 19 by voice vote. It had previously passed the Senate on January 21 by a vote of 19-14. The next step is for the bill to be sent to the Governor for his consideration.

Senate Bill 822 (Allows discounts for the prompt payment of health care fees) passed the Legislature.

• Under current state law, a clinician is not allowed to reduce (or offer to reduce) a patient’s coinsurance or deductible unless paying the amount would be an undue financial hardship for the patient.

• This bill clarifies that discounts for prompt patient payment do not violate existing prohibitions in state law. It also clarifies that clinicians may (but are not required to) offer a discount to patients for prompt payment. Discounts are limited to 15% of the bill (and are reasonably related to the avoided amount of collection costs).

• The bill also includes the following requirements related to allowing such a payment discount:

o The discount must be offered uniformly for prompt payment, without regard to the insurer or the patient's reason for seeking care.

o The clinician must notify insurers by posting the most up-to-date discount policy on their website (public advertising of the discount is prohibited unless otherwise required by law).

o The discount cannot be provided before the service is scheduled or outside the clinician’s ordinary course of dealing with patients (e.g., at registration, billing, or payment).

o Clinicians cannot shift the cost of the discount to other payers or include it in third-party payer contracts (except as allowed by state or federal law).

• This bill passed the Assembly on February 19 by voice vote. It passed the Senate on February 11. It will now go to the Governor for his consideration.

Senate Bill 832 (Allowing any pharmacy to be operated as a remotely supervised pharmacy, if the pharmacist complies with the Pharmacy Examining Board’s rules) passed the Legislature.

• Under existing state law, pharmacies at certain locations (e.g., health care facilities, clinicians’ offices, and correctional facilities) may be operated as remote dispensing sites that are supervised remotely by pharmacists.

• This bill passed the Assembly yesterday by voice vote. It passed the Senate on February 11. It will now go to the Governor for his consideration.

Once the state Senate has adjourned for the 2025-2026 regular legislative session, we will provide you with an appropriate update.