WiHPCA News

WiHPCA is happy to remind members about and provide links to the latest legislative and regulatory articles and information on the hospice industry from Hospice News and other publications:

·        Congress Grills HHS on Hospice Program Integrity

Hospice News – By Jim Parker| March 21, 2024

Members of Congress are raising questions about the continued Medicare certification for new hospices in areas rife with fraud. U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra fielded questions in a House Ways & Means committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) and Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) fired questions at the secretary about an apparent lack of progress on curbing certifications for bad actors. Read more...

·        HHS Secretary Becerra: We’re with You on Telehealth Flexibilities

Hospice News – By Jim Parker| March 20, 2024

Telehealth flexibilities must become permanent U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra indicated in a congressional hearing today. At the end of this year, telehealth flexibilities implemented during the pandemic are slated to expire. In a hearing before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee Becerra said that HHS was willing to make them permanent. However, he said this would require closer collaboration with state governments. Read more...

·        State Palliative Care Councils May Be Proliferating

Hospice News – By Holly Vossel| March 20, 2024

Wisconsin is among the states that have recently taken steps to improve palliative care access and awareness. Wisconsin legislators recently introduced a bill that would establish a statewide Palliative Care Council. If passed, the bill would require the state’s Department of Health Services (DHS) to create a group of palliative clinical professionals, patients and family members to help address care delivery issues in the field. Read More…

·        Hospices Stepping Up Performance on Visits-in-Last-Days-of-Life Measure

Hospice News – By Jim Parker| March 14, 2024

Hospices, in aggregate, are showing improvement on the quality measure for visits in the last days of life. The number of registered nurse and social worker visits during a patient’s final week is one of the seven quality measures that CMS uses to evaluate providers. In Calendar Year 2021, the share of hospice care days with nurse visits in the last seven days of life rose to 63%, up from 62% year over year, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). Read more…

Hospice News, which is part of the Aging Media Network, is a leading source for news and information covering the hospice industry.

WiHPCA Board Chair, Lynne Sexten, was featured on Wisconsin Public Radio.  She shared the importance of the Palliative Care Council with listeners.  Listen to the full interview online! 

https://www.wpr.org/shows/morning-show/palliative-care-legislation-guns-on-college-campuses-author-on-a-just-economy

 

On February 20, the full Assembly passed the Palliative Care Council Bill (AB 736) on a voice vote. While that is great news, significant challenges remain in the Senate.

On February 1, the Senate Committee on Government Operations held a hearing on Senate Bill 703, which would create a state Palliative Care Council to advise the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) and provide recurring reports to the Legislature.  In particular, 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. 

In addition to the authors of this legislation, Senator Jesse James (R-Eau Claire Area) and Representative Patrick Snyder (R-Wausau), the following individuals testified in favor of the bill at the February 1 Senate hearing:

• Danielle DiGennaro, Director of Supportive Care, Agrace (WiHPCA Representative)
• Najmus Liang, MD, Medical Director – Wisconsin, VITAS Healthcare (WiHPCA Representative)
• Sara Sahli, Government Relations Director-Wisconsin, American Cancer Society
• Carrie Schepp, General Manager – Wisconsin, VITAS Healthcare (WiHPCA Representative)

Several volunteers with the American Cancer Society’s Action Network also submitted written testimony in support of this legislation.

The WiHPCA Government Affairs Team is working with the chair of the Senate Government Operations Committee to pass the bill out of committee, but he has reservations with the legislation. WiHPCA will continue to keep members updated on the bill’s status.

On February 19, WiHPCA member St. Croix Hospice hosted Wisconsin Senator Jesse James (R-Altoona) for a legislative visit at their Chippewa Falls office. The visit was held as part of WiHPCA’s Capitol Connection program, which aims to build relationships between members and their local state lawmakers.

During the meeting, St. Croix Hospice staff, led by Statewide Executive Director Rick Risler, had an opportunity to discuss with Sen. James the value of hospice and palliative care for Wisconsin patients and their families. It also provided a great opportunity to thank Sen. James for authoring WiHPCA’s Palliative Care Council Bill, which would help improve the quality of life for patients across Wisconsin facing life-limiting illness.

In addition, the discussion navigated to other legislative and regulatory challenges faced by the hospice industry, including the Medicaid nursing home room-and-board pass through issue that places administrative and financial burdens on hospices across the state. Sen. James was highly engaged in the conversation and interested in helping the hospice industry in Wisconsin knock down regulatory obstacles.

Sen. James currently represents the 23rd Senate District in northwest Wisconsin, which includes parts of Barron, Chippewa, Clark, Dunn, Eau Claire, Jackson, Marathon, and Wood counties. He is a lifelong resident of the Eau Claire Area and served in the U.S. Army for six years before attending Chippewa Valley Technical College, where he studied police science. Prior to being elected to the Wisconsin Legislature, Sen. James worked as a full-time police officer and was appointed as Police and Fire Chief of Altoona in 2013.

If you are interested in hosting your lawmaker as part of WiHPCA’s Capitol Connection program, please contact the WiHPCA office at wihpca@badgerbay.co.

On December 22, 2023, the State Supreme Court issued a ruling that Wisconsin’s state legislative district maps are unconstitutional and the maps for each such district must be redrawn before the 2024 elections.  State Supreme Court justices voted 4-3 in favor of this ruling.  The decision focused on specific state legislative districts that include non-contiguous portions of land, which the court found violated the state constitution.

Specifically, the court ruled that the legislature must redraw the boundaries for each state Assembly and state Senate district in advance of the August 2024 primary election.  If the legislature and Governor Evers are not able to agree on legislation creating new district boundaries, the court noted that it will decide on the new boundaries.  As a practical matter, the state Elections Commission has noted that new district boundaries will need to be finalized by March 15, 2024. 

In January, the parties to the case submitted various proposed state legislative district maps to the court and the court-appointed consultants reviewed these maps and provided their analysis to the court on February 1.  However, in mid-February, the Legislature passed a bill with the version of state legislative district maps that Governor Evers previously submitted to the court.  This legislation passed both chambers of the Legislature with mostly Republican votes and has been sent to Governor Evers, who signed the new maps into law on Feb. 19, 2024.

The new state legislative districts will take effect for legislative candidates who are elected in November 2024.

In Governor Tony Evers’ State of the State address, which was delivered before the Legislature on January 15, he announced that he would be forming a Task Force on the Health Care Workforce.  Soon thereafter, he signed an executive order formally creating this task force.  According to the Governor’s press release, “The task force will be charged with studying the workforce challenges facing the state’s healthcare system, including recruitment and retention, identifying ways to improve patient care and alleviate the burdens on the healthcare workforce, exploring educational and training pathways to grow a sustainable healthcare workforce, and creating an action plan with solutions related to workforce development, industry innovation, education, and training for consideration in the governor’s 2025-27 biennial budget.”

In early February, Governor Evers announced the various members of the task force, which includes several nurses.  Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, who is also a registered nurse, will chair the task force and Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Secretary Amy Pechacek and Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary Kirsten Johnson will serve as co-chairs. 

This task force will likely hold multiple public meetings in various locations in the state.  That information will be shared in this newsletter, once it is available. 

The state Assembly passed Assembly Bill 736 on February 20.  The bill creates a state Palliative Care Council and has been one of WiHPCA’s top priorities in this legislative session.  The bill passed the state Assembly by voice vote with several Representatives speaking in favor of the bill on the Assembly floor, including Rep. Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers), Rep. Donna Rozar (R-Marshfield) and the Assembly bill author, Rep. Patrick Snyder (R-Wausau Area).  No one spoke in opposition to the bill on the Assembly floor today.  The bill now heads to the state Senate.

Wisconsin’s Rainbow Community Care and Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid have collaborated on a television project designed to educate and inform audiences about the importance of hospice, palliative, and guided care. 

The public television story will be distributed to 170+ affiliate stations across the country on February 26^th and they will have up to one year to broadcast it.

The 1-minute commercial is airing this month on CNN, CNN Headline News, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News, Fox Business Network, TLC, Travel and Discovery in the Madison and Milwaukee television markets.

On January 17, the Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care voted unanimously (16-0) to recommend approval of Assembly Bill 736, which would create a state Palliative Care Council to advise the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) and provide recurring reports to the Legislature.  State Representative Patrick Snyder (R-Wausau Area) and state Senator Jesse James (R-Eau Claire Area), working in conjunction with WiHPCA, introduced Assembly Bill 736, as well as Senate companion legislation (Senate Bill 703) in late 2023.  Senate Bill 703 has been referred to the Senate Committee on Government Operations. 

One week prior to the approval of this bill – on January 10 – the Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care held a hearing on Assembly Bill 736.  At this hearing, numerous individuals testified regarding this bill.  In addition to state Representative Patrick Snyder (R-Wausau), who is the author of this legislation, the following individuals testified in favor of the bill:

• Danielle DiGennaro, Director of Supportive Care, Agrace
• Najmus Liang, MD, Medical Director – Wisconsin, VITAS Healthcare
• Sara Sahli, Government Relations Director-Wisconsin, American Cancer Society
• Chad Spitz, Son of a patient who received palliative care at VITAS Healthcare
• A number of letters of support were submitted from physicians, APRNs and RNs.

The primary intent of this legislation is to improve awareness of and access to palliative care.  That is because 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 would be comprised of 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, 25 other states from coast to coast have formed such entities. 

WiHPCA’s government affairs team continues to lobby the Legislature to continue to move this bill through the legislative process. 

On January 16, the state Assembly unanimously approved Senate Bill 178, which would require all individuals or organizations that are currently required to report certain deaths to medical examiners or coroners to also notify these officials of all persons who have died within 24 hours of admittance or presentment to a hospital or other facility – even deaths not currently included under existing reportable circumstances under existing state law.  The state Senate unanimously approved this bill in November 2023. 

WiHPCA members already report deaths under certain circumstances – typically following a significant fall – to the appropriate county coroners or medical examiners as is required by existing state law.  However, WiHPCA is concerned that a requirement to notify the coroner or medical examiner regarding all deaths that occur within 24 hours of admittance or presentment would significantly increase the number of death notifications that would need to be submitted, particularly from hospices.

As such, WiHPCA’s Madison lobbyists successfully advocated for an amendment exempting hospice from the death reporting requirements in Senate Bill 178, as well as the Assembly companion bill – Assembly Bill 189. 

Now that both the Assembly and Senate have approved this legislation – including an exemption for hospice – it will go to the Governor for his consideration.