WiHPCA News

Once again this year, Governor Evers has proclaimed November Hospice and Palliative Care month! Check out the Proclamation HERE.

WiHPCA’s Legislative Committee recently approved the association’s policy agenda for the 2025-2026 state legislative session.  The priorities are as follows:

• Promote public awareness and increase policy influence of palliative care, including the creation of a state palliative care advisory council.  This will greatly help with educating the general public as to the strong value of palliative care and, ultimately, allow more Wisconsinites who need this type of specialized care to receive treatment.

• Require all Wisconsin health plans who cover hospice services to pay hospices no less than published CMS hospice rates.  This will help with employee recruitment and retention by ensuring that the hospice workforce receives a competitive wage. 

The WiHPCA-WiAHC Joint Fall Conference was a great event, one that provided hospice and home health care professionals with fantastic educational content and networking opportunities. Public policy and legislative issues were also a topic of discussion at the conference, which was sparked by State Representative Dave Maxey (R-New Berlin) who helped open the conference that was held near his district in Brookfield, WI. In addition to providing brief comments before the full conference, Rep. Maxey had a long discission with several members regarding the policies important to both WiHPCA and WiAHC. Our Government Affairs Team will certainly be working with Rep. Maxey during the 2025-26 legislative session.

The results of the November 5 general election once again show how Wisconsin is indeed a purple state.  While Wisconsinites narrowly voted to elect former President Donald Trump, a Republican, to the Presidency, our state’s voters also re-elected Democrat Tammy Baldwin to the U.S. Senate.  This is a situation that has not occurred in Wisconsin in over half a century. 

In the State Assembly and Senate, the current Republican majorities lost a total of 14 seats – 10 in the Assembly and 4 in the Senate.  It was expected that Republicans would lose seats in both chambers of the Legislature, but not enough to lose the majority – which is what happened.  This was due to the fact that new legislative districts were put in place earlier this year. 

For a full list of newly-elected state legislators, including photos and a very brief background on each individual, please visit the WisPolitics website. 

The following are highlights from the two federal races of note – the race for President and for U.S. Senate:

President

In a race that many observers thought might take several days to finalize, former President Donald Trump prevailed in the nationwide electoral college count over incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris.  The Wisconsin results are as follows:

• Former President Donald Trump (R):  49.7% 
• Vice President Kamala Harris (D):  48.8%

U.S. Senate

For much of 2024, incumbent U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin held a 5-10% lead over challenger Eric Hovde in the election polls.  As the November election got closer, the polls tightened considerably.  The results are as follows:

• U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D):  49.4%
• Eric Hovde (R):  48.5%

State Assembly

Currently, there is a 64-34 Republican majority in the state Assembly, with one vacant seat in a majority Democratic district in the city of Milwaukee.  All 99 Assembly seats were up for election this year. 

On Election Day, Republicans won 54 Assembly races, which gives them the majority for the 2025-2026 legislative session.  Assembly Republicans now will have 10 fewer seats than they did during the 2023-2024 legislative session.  Democrats won 45 Assembly races. 

State Senate

At this time, Republicans have a supermajority in the state Senate, with 22 senators, while Democrats have 10 senators, with one vacant seat in a heavily Democratic district in the city of Milwaukee.  Roughly half of the senate seats are up for election every two years.  As such, 16 of the 33 Senate seats were up for election this year. 

The final result in the Senate is that Senate Republicans lost 4 Senate seats, bringing their majority down from 22 seats to 18 seats for the 2025-2026 legislative session.  Democrats will have 14 seats in the Senate. 

The following incumbent senators lost their bid for re-election: 

Senate District 8 – Northern Milwaukee Suburbs

• Jodi Habush Sinykin (D):  50.8%
• Sen. Duey Stroebel (R):  49.3%

Senate District 8 – Southcentral Wisconsin North of Madison (and a portion of Madison)

• Sarah Keyeski (D):  51.1%
• Sen. Joan Ballweg (R):  48.9%

In early November, Republicans and Democrats started to vote internally on their respective leadership teams.  The following are the newly selected leaders, as of November 14:

Senate Republicans

• Senate Majority Leader – Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg)
• Senate President – Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk)
• • She is new in this role. 
• Senate Assistant Majority Leader – Dan Feyen (R-Fond du Lac)
• Senate President Pro Tempore – Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point)
• Senate Republican Caucus Char – Van Wanggaard (R-Racine)
• Senate Republican Caucus Vice-Chair Rachel Cabral-Guevara (R-Appleton)
• • She is new to this role. 

Senate Democrats

• Senate Minority Leader – Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton)
• Senate Assistant Minority Leader – Jeff Smith (D-Eau Claire)
• Senate Minority Caucus Chair – Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit)
• • He is new in this role. 
• Senate Minority Vice Caucus Chair – Dora Drake (D-Milwaukee)
• • She is new in this role. 

Assembly Republicans

• Assembly Speaker – Robin Vos (R-Rochester)
• Assembly Majority Leader – Tyler August (R-Walworth)
• Assembly Assistant Majority Leader – Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa)
• • He is new in this role. 
• Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore – Kevin Peterson (R-Waupaca)
• Assembly Majority Caucus Chair – Rob Summerfield (R-Bloomer)
• Assembly Majority Caucus Vice Chair – Cindi Duchow (R-Delafield)
• Assembly Majority Caucus Secretary – Nancy VanderMeer (R-Tomah)
• Assembly Majority Caucus Sergeant at Arms – Treig Pronschinske (R-Mondovi)

Assembly Democrats

·        Assembly Minority Leader – Rep. Greta Neubauer (D-Racine)

·        Assembly Assistant Minority Leader – Rep. Kaylan Haywood (D-Milwaukee)

·        Assembly Minority Caucus Chair – Lisa Subek (D-Madison)

·        Assembly Minority Caucus Vice-Chair – Rep. Clinton Anderson (D-Beloit)

·        Assembly Minority Caucus Secretary – Rep. Mike Bare (D-Verona)

·        Assembly Minority Caucus Sergeant at Arms – Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Claire)

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:

·       House Passes Gerald’s Law to Establish Burial Benefits for Veterans in Hospice

Hospice News – By Jim Parker | Nov. 19, 2024

 

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed Gerald’s Law, which would close a hospice-related loophole in veterans’ benefits. When eligible veterans die, many of their families are entitled to a financial benefit from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to defray some of the costs of funerals and cremation or burial. However, when a veteran transitions from a VA facility to hospice, they lose access to that benefit. This is even the case when hospice care is provided by the VA itself. Read more...

·       Medicare Made $190M in Improper Hospice Payments to Hospitals

Hospice News – By Jim Parker | Nov. 19, 2024

 

Medicare made an estimated $190 million in improper payments to acute-care hospitals for outpatient hospice services between 2017 and 2021. An audit by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) set out to determine whether Medicare payments to acute-care hospitals for outpatient services provided to hospice enrollees complied with Medicare requirements. OIG found that 70% of those payments were not compliant. Read more...

·       Hospices Leaders: ‘Vigilant’ Compliance Pivotal in MAC Auditing Climate

Hospice News – By Holly Vossel| Nov. 18, 2024

 

The auditing environment has heated up in the hospice industry, with inconsistencies reportedly proliferating among the various types of regulatory enforcement activity — particularly those performed by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs). The issue has some hospice providers delving deeper into a range of compliance strategies. Read more...

·       CMS Ramps Up Efforts to Root Out ‘Door Knocker’ Hospice Schemes

Hospice News – By Holly Vossel| Nov. 15, 2024

 

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently elaborated on its plans to expand public education campaigns designed to help protect hospice beneficiaries from fraudulent actors in the space. Program integrity concerns have heated up in the hospice industry. Swarms of new hospices have emerged in certain regions in recent years, with some unscrupulous operators receiving federal funding through illegitimate business practices. Read more...

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

On October 18, WiHPCA Legislative Committee member Rick Risler, who serves as the executive director of St. Croix Hospice, presented a “Champion of Hospice and Palliative Care” award for the 2023-2024 legislative session to state Senator Jesse James (R-Eau Claire Area) in the St. Croix Hospice office in Eau Claire.

Earlier this year, WiHPCA also presented “Champions of Hospice and Palliative Care” awards for the 2023-2024 legislative session to Representative Patrick Snyder (R-Wausau Area) and Senator Kelda Roys (D-Madison).  WiHPCA is honoring these legislators for their exceptional work to address the priorities of hospice and palliative care agencies and staff throughout the state. 

On October 2, 2024, Marquette Law School released a new statewide election poll, which was conducted between September 18-26.  The following poll findings may be of interest.

Presidential Race

The following are the results for polling of registered Wisconsin voters: 

• Kamala Harris (D):  52%
• Donald Trump (R):  48%

When factoring in various Presidential candidates from other political parties, the results are as follows for registered Wisconsin voters:

• Kamala Harris (Democrat):  48%
• Donald Trump (Republican):  44%
• Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Independent):  3%  [Note: Kennedy has suspended his campaign but will remain on the ballot, according to a ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.]
• Chase Oliver (Libertarian Party):  1%
• Jill Stein (Green Party):  1%
• Randall Terry (Constitution Party): Less than 1% 
• Claudia De la Cruz (Party for Socialism and Liberation):  0%
• Cornel West (Independent): 0%

U.S. Senate Race

The following are the results for registered Wisconsin voters: 

• Tammy Baldwin (D):  53%
• Eric Hovde (R):  46%

Governor Tony Evers’ Job Performance

This poll asked registered voters if they approve or disapprove of the way that Democrat Tony Evers is handling his job as Governor.  This poll found the following:

• Approve:  48%
• Disapprove:  46%
• Don’t know:  5%

Direction of the State and Economic Conditions

Direction of the State

This poll asked registered voters whether things in Wisconsin are generally going in the right direction, or if things have gotten off on the wrong track.  This poll found the following:

• Right Direction:  44%
• Wrong Track:  56%

Views of the National Economy

This poll asked registered voters how they would describe the national economy.  This poll found the following: 

• Excellent:  5%
• Good:  32%
• Not so good: 30%
• Poor:  33%

Polling on Various Issues – By Political Party

Republican Voters

This poll also asked Wisconsin registered voters which issue (out of the following eight issues) is the most important.  This poll found that the following issues are the most important to Republican voters:

• Economy:  53%
• Immigration and border security:  31%
• Medicare & Social Security:  5%
• Abortion policy:  3%
• Ensuring fair and accurate elections:  3%
• Foreign relations:  2%
• Health care:  1%
• The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza:  1%
• Don’t know:  1%

Democratic Voters

This poll also asked Wisconsin registered voters which issue (out of the following eight issues) is the most important.  This poll found that the following issues are the most important to Democratic voters:

• Abortion policy:  31%
• Economy:  19%
• Medicare & Social Security:  13%
• Health care:  13%
• Ensuring fair and accurate elections:  11%
• Foreign relations:  5%
• The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza:  2%
• Immigration and border security:  1%
• Don’t know:  5%

On October 15, Governor Tony Evers announced that the state government ended Fiscal Year 2024 with a positive balance of $4.6 billion.  This amount is $821.3 million higher than projected.  This balance will be used when the Legislature crafts the state’s Fiscal Year 2025-2027 budget next year. 

Also, the state’s budget stabilization fund or “rainy day fund,” which is intended to be used to balance the state budget in a time of reduced tax revenue, is $1.9 billion.  This fund balance is the highest in the state’s history. 

Forward Analytics, a division of the Wisconsin Counties Association, released a report on September 29 entitled, “On the Brink: Probing the Coming Senior Care Challenges.”  According to their website, “Forward Analytics is a Wisconsin-based research organization that provides state and local policymakers with nonpartisan analysis of issues affecting the state.” 

With the expected significant growth of the senior citizen population in Wisconsin, the report finds that nearly 60,000 additional beds in nursing homes and assisted living facilities may be needed by 2040.  In addition, the report notes that nearly 10,000 nurses, certified nursing assistants (CNAs), and home health/personal care aides will be needed in these types of facilities by 2030.  The full report may be found on the Forward Analytics website.