Patrick Fuller
Assembly Chief Clerk
17 West Main Street, Suite 401
Madison, WI 53703
Dear Patrick:
I am pleased to transmit to you the following reports to the 2009 Legislature on legislation introduced by the Joint Legislative Council:
RL 2009-10 Special Committee on Emergency Management and Continuity of Government
2009 Senate Bill 226 and 2009 Assembly Bill 316;
2009 Senate Bill 227 and 2009 Assembly Bill 317;
2009 Senate Bill 228 and 2009 Assembly Bill 318;
2009 Senate Bill 229 and 2009 Assembly Bill 319;
2009 Senate Bill 230 and 2009 Assembly Bill 320;
2009 Senate Joint Resolution 39 and
2009 Assembly Joint Resolution 59
I would appreciate your including this letter in the Journal for the information of the membership. Additional copies of these reports are available at the Legislative Council Staff offices, One East Main, Suite 401, or from our web page at
http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lc.
Sincerely,
Terry C. Anderson
Joint Legislative Council
Director
__________________
State of Wisconsin
Legislative Reference Bureau
Madison
DATE: July 1, 2009
TO: Patrick E. Fuller
Assembly Chief Clerk
Robert Marchant
Senate Chief Clerk
FROM: Bruce J. Hoesly
Code Editor
SUBJECT: Rules published in the June 30, 2009
Wisconsin Administrative
Register, No. 643.
The following rules have been published:
__________________
Referral of Agency Reports
State of Wisconsin
Department of Employee Trust Funds
Department of Health Services
Madison
June 8, 2009
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
Wis Stats. 153.05 (2s) directs the Department of Health Services and the Department of Employee Trust Funds to jointly prepare an annual report on the activities of the Wisconsin Health Information Organization (WHIO). The Departments are required to submit this report to the standing committees of the Legislature with jurisdiction over health issues.
As both the national and state levels, efforts are under way to transform health care through the use of health information technology. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 appropriated over $35 billion to advance the adoption of electronic health records and to create standardized electronic health information exchange. Wisconsin is uniquely positioned to participate in these federal efforts to transform the health care delivery system because of it technical resources and strong industry partners in the technology and health care sectors, and the commitment and intellectual capacity across the public and private sectors brought to this work.
As a result of the ground-breaking work done by the Wisconsin Health Information Organization, both public and private sector health care purchasers will have the ability to measure the quality and price of health care services and use that information to increase the value of future purchases. Health care providers will have information available to them that will help them identify where quality and cost variation exists and answer the question, "What care provides the most value to patients?"
WHIO is an excellent example of a collaborative public-private partnership and an extremely important initiative for Wisconsin to achieve transparency in health care and promote better health care outcomes for the people of Wisconsin. We are fully committed to working in partnership with the other health care stakeholders across the state through WHIO.
Please find enclosed the first annual report on the activities of WHIO, as well as a fact sheet on WHIO and a WHIO Board Membership Roster. If you have any questions, please contact Denise Webb, eHealth Program Manager, at (608) 267-6767.
Sincerely,
David Stella, Secretary
Department of Employee Trust Funds
Karen E. Timberlake, Secretary
Department of Health Services
Referred to committee on Health and Healthcare Reform.
