Assembly Bill 623249April 27, 2004
Sincerely,
Douglas La Follette
Secretary of State
__________________
Referral of Agency Reports
State of Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin System
Madison
DATE: April 6, 2004
TO: Patrick E. Fuller
Assembly Chief Clerk
FROM: Katharine C. Lyall, President
TO: Report pursuant to s.
36.25 (14m)(c),
Wis. Stats.
At its meeting April 2, 2004, the Board of Regents accepted the attached report for submission to the Chief Clerk of each house of the Legislature for distribution to the appropriate standing committees under s.
13.172 (3).
Section
36.25 (14m)(c), Wis. Stats., requires the Board of Regents to submit a report to the Governor and to the Chief Clerk of each house of the legislature annually by April 15 on its precollege, recruitment, and retention plan for minority and disadvantaged students. The report must also include information on financial aid programs serving those students. The report for 2002-2003 is attached.
If you need additional information regarding this report, please contact Andrea-Teresa Arenas, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs, at 262-8636.
Referred to committee on Colleges and Universities.
__________________
State of Wisconsin
Department of Administration
Madison
April 7, 2004
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
In accordance with Wisconsin Statutes section 13.172 (2) and section 16.957 (2)(d)4, the department submits the FY2003 Annual Report on the Public Benefits Fund.
The Public Benefits Fund supports the Focus on Energy program and Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance programs.
If you would like to receive this report electronically, you may call Pat Middleton at 6-9770 to make that request.
Please let me know if you have any questions about the report or the programs.
Sincerely,
Marc J. Marotta
Secretary
Referred to committee on Energy and Utilities.
__________________
Agency Reports
State of Wisconsin
Legislative Audit Bureau
Madison
April 14, 2004
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
At the request of the Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS), we have completed a financial audit of the Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan (HIRSP) for fiscal year (FY) 2002-03. HIRSP provides medical and prescription drug insurance for more than 17,000 policyholders who are unable to obtain coverage in the private market or who lost employer-sponsored group health insurance. We have provided an unqualified opinion on HIRSP's financial statements.
A926
HIRSP's financial position continues to improve: its accounting deficit was $0.9 million on June 30, 2003, compared to $6.0 million on June 30, 2002. In addition, a balance in the excess policyholder premium account increased significantly during FY 2002-03, from $3.0 million to $10.4 million as of June 30, 2003. By statute, the excess premium balance can be used only for purposes that benefit policyholders, such as for reducing premium levels to a statutory floor of 140 percent of standard risk rates.
Despite an improving financial position, HIRSP faces continuing management and funding challenges because of increasing enrollment and claims costs. In FY 2002-03, enrollment increased 16.9 percent and claims costs increased 27.8 percent. In addition, general purpose revenue (GPR) support was eliminated beginning in FY 2003-04. Costs previously covered by GPR, which totaled $10.2 million in FY 2002-03, are now covered by policyholders, insurers, and health care providers. Further, legislative action will be needed to address a technical issue that DHFS and HIRSP's contracted actuary have identified in HIRSP's statutory funding formula.
During our prior audit, we recommended DHFS increase its oversight of prescription drug claims, which totaled $32.4 million in FY 2002-03, through independent audits of the pharmacy benefit management company's controls. DHFS is currently conducting a competitive procurement process to select the plan administrator that will be administering HIRSP beginning in January 2005, and it has included a requirement for such audits in the Request for Vendor Proposals that will be used to award a new contract.
We appreciate the courtesy and cooperation extended to us by DHFS and the plan administrator for HIRSP. A response from DHFS follows the appendix.
Respectfully submitted,
Janice Mueller
State Auditor
