Currently, if a person is found to be a proper subject for treatment and is found
to satisfy at least one of the five standards of dangerousness, the person may initially
be committed for treatment for a period not to exceed six months. In addition, a
commitment order may be extended after an evaluation of the person. Each
consecutive commitment order extension may be for a period not to exceed 12
months.
An inmate of a jail, house of correction or prison may be subject to an
involuntary commitment proceeding based on a petition described above. However,
there is an alternative petition that may be used to begin an involuntary
commitment proceeding against an inmate. This alternative petition must allege all
of the following: 1) that the inmate is mentally ill, is a proper subject for treatment
and is in need of treatment; 2) that the inmate has been fully informed about, and
has had the opportunity to discuss, his or her treatment needs and the mental health
services available to him or her; and 3) that appropriate less restrictive forms of
treatment have been attempted and have been unsuccessful. If an inmate is
committed based on an alternative petition, the total period that the inmate may be
committed may not exceed 180 days in any 365-day period.
This bill extends the period for which an inmate of a state prison may be
committed based on an alternative petition to a period not to exceed one year. The
bill does not change the current time limits on the commitment of an inmate of a jail
or house of correction based on an alternative petition.
Current law provides a procedure for involuntarily committing sexually violent
persons to DHFS for control, care and treatment. A sexually violent person is a
person who has been convicted of certain sexually violent offenses and who is
dangerous because he or she suffers from a mental disorder that makes it
substantially probable that the person will engage in acts of sexual violence.
Under current law, when a person is found to be a sexually violent person the
person must be committed to the custody of DHFS. The court that commits the
person must specify whether the person is to be placed in institutional care or on
supervised release in the community, and DHFS must arrange for control, care and
treatment of the person in the least restrictive manner consistent with the
requirements of the person and in accordance with the court's commitment order.
If the court decides to place the person on supervised release, DHFS and the
county social services department (county department) of the person's county of
residence must prepare a plan for the treatment and services that the person will
receive while on supervised release. If the county department of the person's county
of residence declines to prepare a plan, DHFS or the court must find another county
department to prepare the plan. In State v. Sprosty, 221 Wis. 2d. 401 (Ct. App. 1998),
the court of appeals held that once a court has ordered a person placed on supervised
release, the person must be released and DHFS and the county responsible for
preparing the plan must provide or contract for appropriate treatment and services
or, if such treatment and services are not available, create them.
This bill makes the following changes relating to supervised release of sexually
violent persons:
1. The bill establishes new guidelines for a court's decision concerning whether
to place a person on supervised release. Under the bill, a court may not order a person
to be placed on supervised release if the court finds that it is substantially probable
that the person will engage in acts of sexual violence unless the person resides in a
facility with a level of security comparable to that of a secure mental health unit or
facility. However, even if it makes this finding, the court may withhold its decision
concerning placement and order DHFS and the appropriate county department to
prepare a plan for supervised release for the person, but only if the person first
establishes that it is likely that the daily cost of providing the necessary programs
and facilities for control, care and treatment of the person on supervised release
would not exceed the daily cost of control, care and treatment of the person at a secure
mental health unit or facility.
If the court withholds its decision and orders preparation of a supervised
release plan, the court must then consider whether to approve or disapprove the plan
under the new procedure created by the bill (see item 2., below). Even if the plan
meets the criteria for approval under the new procedure, the court may approve the
plan and place the person on supervised release only if the daily cost of supervised
release would not exceed the daily cost of institutional care at a secure mental health
unit or facility.
2. The bill creates a new procedure that a court must use to approve or
disapprove a supervised release plan. Under the bill, the court must hold a hearing
on a proposed supervised release plan within 30 days after the plan is presented to
the court. Based on evidence provided at the hearing, the court must approve the
plan if it determines that the plan provides adequate treatment and services to the
person and adequate protection to the community. Likewise, the court must
disapprove the plan if it determines that the plan does not provide adequate
treatment and services to the person and adequate protection to the community. If
the court disapproves the plan, DHFS and the county department must revise the
plan and present it to the court again. If the court approves the plan, the court must
order that the person be placed on supervised release in the county that prepared the
plan. DHFS and the county department that prepared the plan must implement the
plan and DHFS may ask the court for any orders that are necessary to ensure
implementation of the plan.
The bill also requires DHFS to place a sexually violent person in a secure
mental health treatment setting if the court decides to place the person in
institutional care rather than on supervised release.
This bill requires DHFS to contract with counties or federally recognized
American Indian tribes or bands to provide one or two demonstration projects in
fiscal year 2000-01. The projects are to provide mental health and alcohol or other
drug abuse services under managed care programs of MA to persons who suffer from
mental illness, alcohol or other drug dependency, or both illness and dependency.
DHFS must submit for approval by the secretary of the federal department of health
and human services any necessary requests for waiver of federal medicaid laws to
effectuate these managed care demonstration projects.
Under current law, the Mendota Mental Health Institute and the Winnebago
Mental Health Institute are operated by DHFS to provide specialized psychiatric
services, research and education. In addition, DHFS may establish a system of
outpatient mental health clinic services in any institution that DHFS operates. A
county department of community programs must under contract authorize all care
of most patients in the mental health institutes. Also, DHFS may provide outpatient
services at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute to public school pupils.
This bill eliminates the explicit authorization for the Winnebago Mental Health
Institute to provide outpatient mental health services for pupils. Instead, the bill
authorizes DHFS to allow a mental health institute to offer, when DHFS determines
that community services need to be supplemented, mental health outpatient
treatment and services, day programming, consultation and services in residential
facilities, including group homes, child caring institutions and community-based
residential facilities, that are situated on the grounds of a mental health institute.
These services may be provided only under a contract between DHFS and specified
entities, to persons who are referred by the entity. Further, the services are governed
by the terms of the contract or by statutes and DHFS rules that regulate facilities,
govern certain mental health services and provide mental health patient rights. In
the event of a conflict between contract provisions and these statutes or rules, the
services must comply with the contractual, statutory or rules provision that is most
protective of the health, safety, welfare or rights of the recipient of the services, as
determined by the mental health institute. Specified mental health statutes,
including emergency detention and commitment laws, and zoning and other county,
city, town or village ordinances, do not apply to provision of the services.
Under current law, DHFS provides funding through county departments of
community programs for mental health treatment services for persons who are in or
relocated from facilities that have been found by the federal health care financing
administration to be institutions for mental diseases (and, thus, ineligible for receipt
of MA). Also under current law, every person who applies for admission to a nursing
home or to an institution for mental diseases must be screened to determine if the
person has a developmental disability or a mental illness and, if so, whether the
person needs facility care and active treatment for the developmental disability or
mental illness.
This bill requires DHFS to provide funding for active treatment of a person in
a nursing home or institution for mental diseases who has been determined, through
screening, to have a mental illness and to need the treatment.
Under current law, county departments of community programs authorize the
care of all patients in state mental health institutes. DHFS regularly bills the county
departments for care provided by mental health institutes at rates that reflect the
estimated per diem cost of specific levels of care, as adjusted periodically by DHFS.
This bill authorizes DHFS to set rates on a flexible basis, rather than at the
estimated per diem cost of specific levels of care, for billing county departments of
community programs for care provided in mental health institutes. The bill requires
that the flexible rate structure recover the cost of operations.
Under current law, DHFS provides services at the Southern Center for the
Developmentally Disabled for up to ten developmentally disabled persons who are
mentally ill or exhibit extremely aggressive and challenging behaviors and for up to
12 such persons at the Northern Center for the Developmentally Disabled. This bill
increases to 36 the total number of such persons for whom DHFS may provide
services and permits the services to be provided at the southern, northern and
central state centers for the developmentally disabled.
Other health and social services
Under current law, DHFS and the department of commerce are authorized to
jointly regulate sources of ionizing and nonionizing radiation. DHFS annually
registers sites of ionizing radiation installations, such as medical sites, and imposes
annual fees for each site and each X-ray tube at the site. Violation of the regulatory
statutes or rules subjects the violator to a forfeiture.
This bill eliminates the authority of the department of commerce to regulate
sources of ionizing and nonionizing radiation. The bill authorizes the governor to
enter into agreements with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to discontinue
certain federal governmental licensing and related regulatory authority with respect
to by-product, source and special nuclear radioactive material and to assume state
regulatory authority. Under the bill, if the agreements are made, persons possessing
licenses issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are considered to be
licensed by the state.
The bill authorizes DHFS, beginning on January 1, 2003, to license specifically
the possession, use, transfer or acquisition of radioactive by-product material and
to license specifically the possession, use, manufacture, production, transfer or
acquisition of radioactive material or devices or items that use radioactive material
and to operate a site that uses radioactive material. The bill also authorizes DHFS
to establish general license requirements for the possession, use, transfer or
acquisition of by-product radioactive material or devices or items that contain
by-product radioactive material.
The bill authorizes DHFS annually, until January 1, 2003, to assess a fee of 36%
of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license application fee and annual
materials license fee, for any person in this state holding a license issued by the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The bill also authorizes DHFS to revise the fee
amounts.
The bill eliminates court-imposed forfeitures for violations of the radiation
regulatory statutes and rules of DHFS and instead establishes administrative
forfeitures that DHFS may directly assess.
Lastly, the bill authorizes DHFS to issue emergency orders to protect the public
from radiation exposure; increases the annual fees for registration of ionizing
radiation installation sites and for X-ray tubes at those sites; and changes current
law to prohibit, rather than to allow, the transfer of registration of ionizing radiation
installations if ownership transfers.
This bill appropriates federal substance abuse block grant moneys to DHFS
and authorizes DHFS to award the moneys to counties and private entities to provide
community-based alcohol and other drug abuse treatment programs. The programs
must meet the special needs of women with problems resulting from alcohol or other
drug abuse and must emphasize parent education, vocational and housing
assistance and coordination with other community programs and with treatment
under intensive care.
Under current law, DHFS distributes community aids to counties to provide
social, mental health, developmental disabilities and alcohol and other drug abuse
services. DHFS must distribute community aids in the form of a basic county
allocation, together with certain categorical allocations, including an allocation for
Alzheimer's family and caregiver support. A county's annual community aids
allocation is specified in a contract between DHFS and the county, and DHFS
distributes the county's allocation in reimbursement of claims submitted by the
county for moneys expended for those services.
This bill specifies that DHFS may distribute no more than $4,500,000 of the
basic county allocation in each fiscal year based on performance standards developed
by DHFS for services funded by community aids. The bill provides that, if a care
management organization under the family care program, created under the bill (see
Long-term care; family care), is available in a county, DHFS may dispose of the
county's Alzheimer's family and caregiver support allocation and not more than
21.3% of the county's basic county allocation by transferring a portion of those
allocations, as determined by DHFS, to the family care program to fund the services
of resource centers and care management organizations under that program and by
transferring a portion of those allocations, as determined by DHFS, to the county's
allocation for adult protective services created under the bill.
On January 4, 1999, DWD assumed responsibility from the clerks of court for
receiving and disbursing child support, maintenance, family support and other
support-related payments. A payer of support or maintenance currently must pay
an annual receipt and disbursement fee of $25 to DWD. This bill provides that the
receipt and disbursement fee must be paid by wage assignment, just as support and
maintenance payments are paid.
Current law provides that each order for child or family support, maintenance
or spousal support is an automatic assignment of a person's wages to DWD in an
amount that is sufficient to ensure payment of the amount under the order, as well
as any arrearages due at a periodic rate that does not exceed 50% of the amount due
under the order, as long as the additional amount for arrearages does not leave the
person at an income below the federal poverty line. Current law also provides that,
if an assignment does not require immediately effective withholding and the payer
misses a payment, the court or family court commissioner may cause the assignment
to go into effect by providing notice of the assignment to the payer's employer or other
person from whom the payer receives or will receive money. The payer also receives
notice and may request a hearing on whether the assignment should remain in effect.
This bill clarifies that the portion of the original assignment that was for any
arrearages due is an assigned amount that does not require immediately effective
withholding and that, if a payer accrues an arrearage by missing a payment, the
assignment of the arrearage may be put into effect, without another court hearing,
by providing notice to the payer and to a person from whom the payer receives or will
receive money. The bill provides that, in addition to the court and the family court
commissioner, the county child support agency may cause the assignment for
arrearages to go into effect by sending the required notices.
The bill also provides that the wage assignment of a person obligated to pay
support or maintenance continues in effect after the person no longer has a current
obligation to pay if the person has an arrearage in the payment of support or
maintenance. The amount of the assignment may be up to the amount that the
assignment was before the person's current obligation to pay support or maintenance
terminated.
Under current law, in a number of situations the state may join in an action
affecting the family (such as a divorce action or an action to enforce a child support
order) as a real party in interest for purposes of establishing paternity or securing
future support or reimbursement of aid paid. The most common situation is when
a child or custodial parent of a child involved in the action is the recipient of certain
services or benefits provided by the state. This bill adds another situation under
which the state may join in an action as a real party in interest: if a custodial parent
involved in the action is receiving food stamp benefits.
Under current law, DWD certifies to the department of revenue (DOR) the
names of individuals who are delinquent in the payment of child or family support,
maintenance, medical expenses of a child or birth expenses (support). DOR uses the
information to intercept income tax refunds that would be paid to those delinquent
obligors. DWD also provides the certifications that it makes to DOR to various
specified state agencies that make grants or loans to individuals. Any individual who
is the subject of such a certification is prohibited from receiving a grant or loan.
Also under current law, if an individual who has a court-ordered obligation to
make periodic payments of support fails to make a payment, the amount of the
delinquent support automatically becomes a lien against all of the individual's
property. DWD is required to maintain a statewide support lien docket that lists the
delinquent obligors and the amount of support that each owes.
This bill eliminates the requirement that DWD provide to the various specified
state agencies the certifications that it provides to DOR. Instead the bill prohibits
each agency from making a grant or loan to an individual whose name appears on
the statewide support lien docket, unless the individual provides to the agency a copy
of a payment agreement that has been approved by a county child support agency for
the payment of the delinquent support.
Under current law, the state receives federal foster care and adoption
assistance funding under Title IV-E of the federal Social Security Act (generally
referred to as IV-E funds), in reimbursement of moneys expended by the state and
the counties for activities relating to foster care and the adoption of children. DHFS
distributes IV-E funds as community aids to counties for the provision of social
services to children and families. If on December 31 of any year there remains
unspent or unencumbered in the community aids basic county allocation an amount
that exceeds the amount of IV-E funds allocated as community aids in that year
(excess IV-E funds), DHFS must carry forward to the next year those excess IV-E
funds and distribute not less than 50% of those excess IV-E funds to counties other
than Milwaukee County for services and projects to assist children and families.
This bill requires DHFS to distribute as community aids to counties other than
Milwaukee County any MA funds received as reimbursement of moneys expended
in those counties by the state and by the counties for case management services
provided to children who are recipients of MA (MA targeted case management
funds). The bill also provides that, if on December 31 of any year there remains
unspent or unencumbered in the community aids basic county allocation an amount
that exceeds the combined amount of IV-E funds and MA targeted case management
funds distributed as community aids in that year (excess IV-E and MA targeted case
management funds), DHFS must carry forward to the next year those excess IV-E
and MA targeted case management funds and distribute those excess funds to
counties other than Milwaukee County for services and projects to assist children
and families.
The bill also requires DHFS to establish and counties to implement a statewide
automated child welfare information system (generally referred to as WISACWIS)
before July 1, 2006; permits DHFS, beginning on July 1, 2001, to distribute excess
IV-E funds only to counties that are making a good faith effort to implement
WISACWIS; and permits DHFS to recover from a county that does not implement
WISACWIS before July 1, 2006, any excess IV-E funds distributed to that county
after June 30, 2001.
Under current law, general purpose revenue funds services for adolescent
parents that emphasize high school graduation and vocational preparation, training
and experience (otherwise known as adolescent self-sufficiency services); adolescent
pregnancy prevention services; in Milwaukee County, services of an adolescent
resource center and services related to development of adolescent parenting skills;
and the provision of information to communities about problems of adolescents and
information to and activities for adolescents to aid in skills development (otherwise
known as adolescent choices project grants). This bill substitutes moneys that are
received under the federal TANF block grant to fund all of these services.
Current law directs the adolescent pregnancy prevention and pregnancy
services board to award grants to provide adolescent pregnancy prevention
programs or pregnancy services. The grants currently are funded with general
purpose revenue. This bill funds the grants with moneys that are received under the
federal TANF block grant program.
This bill appropriates moneys derived from Indian gaming compacts to fund the
American Indian drug abuse prevention and education program, to fund the delivery
of social services and mental hygiene services to American Indians and to fund
vocational rehabilitation services for Native American individuals and federally
recognized tribes or bands.
Currently, each person ordered to pay a fine or forfeiture for operating a motor
vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant, controlled substance or other drug
(OWI) is required to pay a driver improvement surcharge of $340. A majority (62.4%)
of the money collected from the driver improvement surcharge is used by the county
where the violation occurred to provide alcohol and other drug abuse services to
drivers who are referred for alcohol or other drug abuse assessment. A portion of the
remainder of the money is used to provide chemical testing training to law
enforcement officers and a portion is allocated by the secretary of administration to
various state agencies for services related to OWI offenses.
Under this bill, of the money received by the state from the driver improvement
surcharge, $290,900 is transferred to the department of transportation for the
purchase of preliminary breath screening instruments. These instruments are used
to test the breath of a person who is suspected of committing an OWI offense at the
time that the person is stopped to help determine if an arrest is appropriate.
Insurance
This bill requires every managed care plan, which is, generally, a health care
plan that requires insureds to obtain services from certain specified providers under
contract with the health care plan, to offer at least one point-of-service coverage
option in each geographical service area of the managed care plan. A
point-of-service coverage option is a coverage option under which an insured may
obtain health care services that are paid for by the health care plan from a provider
of his or her choice, regardless of whether that provider is a participating provider
of the insured's health care plan or a member of the health care plan's provider
network.
This bill authorizes the office of the commissioner of insurance (OCI) to make
a grant of not more than $200,000 to a private organization for the establishment of
private health insurance purchasing pools for small employers. (Generally, small
employers are those with 50 or fewer employes.) The private organization must
submit a business plan to OCI and the commissioner of insurance must approve the
plan before the grant may be made. OCI and the private organization must enter into
a written agreement concerning the use of the grant proceeds, and the private
organization must submit a report to OCI after spending the proceeds.
Under current law, most policy forms for all types of insurance must be filed
with OCI and approved prior to use. This bill allows the commissioner to exempt
certain classes of insurance policy forms from the requirement for prior filing and
approval.
Currently, OCI charges various fees for services that it provides, as well as for
its regulation of the insurance industry. This bill changes the amount of the fee that
OCI charges an applicant for examination for a license as an insurance intermediary
and the amount of the fee for regulating an insurance intermediary each year after
the year in which the intermediary's license was initially issued to amounts set by
the commissioner by rule.
Local government
Under current law, a county board may engage in zoning and land-use
planning that may result in the preparation of a county development plan for the
physical development of the towns within the county and for the cities and villages
within the county whose governing bodies agree to have their areas included in the
county plan. The development plan may include a number of elements, such as
comprehensive surveys, existing land-use, population, economy, soil characteristics,
wetland and floodplain conditions and natural features of the county.
Also under current law, a city or village, or certain towns that exercise village
powers, may create a plan commission to engage in zoning and land-use planning.
The plan commission must adopt a master plan for the physical development of the
city, village or town including, in some instances, unincorporated areas outside of the
city or village. The master plan is required to show the commission's
recommendations for such physical development, and must also contain a
comprehensive zoning plan.
Also under current law, regional planning commissions (RPCs) may be created
by the governor or, in response to a resolution submitted by the governing body of a
city, village, town or county (political subdivision), by a state agency or official that
the governor designates. Currently, there are eight multicounty RPCs in the state
and one RPC that consists only of Dane County. Five counties, which are adjacent
to Dane County, are not in an RPC. Generally, the membership composition of an
RPC is specified by statute, and the governor may dissolve an RPC by the request
of a majority of the local governments in the region.
An RPC is required to prepare a master plan for the physical development of
the region, which must contain the RPC's recommendations for such physical
development. The elements of an RPC's master plan are the same as the elements
contained in a master plan developed by a city, a village and certain towns, although
all of an RPC's functions are solely advisory to the political subdivisions that
comprise the region.
This bill changes the membership composition of the Dane County RPC on the
31st day after the effective date of the bill, and dissolves the RPC on December 31,
2001. Under the bill, all of the members of the Dane County RPC are appointed by
the governor from lists submitted by the Dane County executive, the mayor of the
city of Madison and associations representing third and fourth class cities, villages
and towns. If the Dane County RPC has any outstanding debt on the date of its
dissolution, that debt is assessed to Dane County. The bill also requires the five
boards of the counties that are not in an RPC, and the Dane County board, to vote
on whether they want to participate in a new multicounty RPC. If at least two-thirds
of the voting counties approve, the new RPC becomes effective on January 1, 2002.
The bill also specifies that the membership composition of all RPCs that are created
after December 31, 2001, that include a county that contains a 2nd class city must
follow the same statute that sets the membership composition for a RPC that
contains a 1st class city. Finally, the bill prohibits after December 31, 2001, the
creation of an RPC that consists of only one county.
The bill also changes the requirements that must be contained in a county
development plan or a city, village, town or RPC master plan. Under the bill, all such
plans must do all of the following:
1. Include background information on the local governmental unit and a
statement of objectives, policies, goals and programs of the local governmental unit
to guide the future growth and development of the local governmental unit over a
20-year planning period.
2. Include information on the local governmental unit's housing stock and
plans for housing for residents with all income levels and various needs.
3. Address transportation issues and evaluate the relationship between the
local governmental unit's transportation plans and state and regional
transportation plans.
4. Guide the development of public and private utilities, governmental services
and community facilities.
5. Guide the development of conservation policies for, and the effective
management of, agricultural, natural, historic and cultural resources.
6. Promote the stabilization, retention or expansion of the economic base of, and
quality employment opportunities in, the local governmental unit.
7. Provide for joint planning and decision making with other jurisdictions.
8. Guide the future development and redevelopment of public and private
property in the local governmental unit.
9. Contain programs and specific actions to be completed in a stated sequence,
including proposed changes to any applicable zoning ordinances, building codes or
subdivision ordinances, to implement the other elements.
