Thursday, October 14, 2010
Ninety-Ninth Regular Session
The Chief Clerk makes the following entries under the above date.
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State of Wisconsin
Government Accountability Board
October 12, 2010
The Honorable, The Senate:
The following lobbyists have been authorized to act on behalf of the organizations set opposite their names.
For more detailed information about these lobbyists and organizations and a complete list of organizations and people authorized to lobby the 2009-2010 session of the legislature, visit the Government Accountability Board's web site at:
http://gab.wi.gov/.
O'Meara, Jack Wisconsin School Social Workers
Association
Also available from the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board are reports identifying the amount and value of time state agencies have spent to affect legislative action and reports of expenditures for lobbying activities filed by organizations that employ lobbyists.
Sincerely,
kevin kennedy
Director and General Counsel
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Wisconsin Hospital Association
October 13, 2010
The Honorable, The Legislature:
As the recession tightened its grip on the nation's economy, Wisconsin hospitals felt the squeeze. The number of patients that were unable to pay their bills in part or in full increased a enrollment in the state's medical assistance program - BadgerCare- skyrocketed. Patients that had nowhere else to turn began to seek care in hospital emergency departments - some for the first time in their lives. The recognition that a hospital is the community's health care safety net has never been so great. Hospitals provided thousands of hours of free health screening and education programs and gave millions of dollars in charity care.
For the fifth year in a row, all Wisconsin hospitals - 130 in total - completed the Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA) Community benefits survey. Wisconsin is one of a handful of states in the country where 100 percent of the hospitals voluntarily report community benefits (
www.WiServePoint.org).
WHA member hospitals use the Community Benefits Inventory for Social Accountability (CBISA) statewide survey tool developed by Lyons Software to both collect and report these activities. The survey utilized common definitions and reporting standards that have been tested and proven after more than a decade of use by the Catholic Healthcare Association and the VHA.
This report would not be possible without our hospitals continuing and strong support of transparency. WHA requested and received literally hundreds of stories that illustrate the immense contributions that hospitals make to their communities. We wish to express our sincerest thanks to every hospital in Wisconsin for providing the time, financial resources and an unwavering commitment to their mission to serve the health care needs of residents in the Badger State.
Sincerely,
david olson
2010 Chairman
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State of Wisconsin
Department of Health Services
October 15, 2010
The Honorable, The Legislature:
1997 Wisconsin Act 27 directs the Department of Health Services to submit an annual report to the Joint Committee on Finance on the previous fiscal year's utilization of nursing home beds by Medical Assistance (MA) recipients. It also requires a discussion and projection of current fiscal year MA expenditures and likely balances. Section
49.45 (6v)(c) of the statutes requires that if the report shows a decrease in bed utilization by MA recipients at a rate greater than assumed in the budget, then the Department must propose a transfer of funds associated with that decrease from the MA budget to the Community Options Program (COP). However, statutes prohibit the Department from proposing a transfer that would create a deficit in the current year or biennial appropriation.
The number of nursing home patient days budgeted for FY10 in
2009 Act 28, the 09-11 Budget Bill, was 6,210,052. In FY10, MA recipients utilized 6,327,019 nursing home patient days, 116,968 days more than budgeted (Table 1). An analysis of patient days by level of care and the average daily cost for each care level indicates that actual expenses exceeded projections by approximately $13,944,911 AF ($4,120,721 GPR). Because of the higher than budgeted utilization of MA nursing home services, there is no surplus of nursing home funds to transfer to the Community Options Program appropriation.
S874
Since there is no surplus in the nursing home budget to transfer, it is not necessary to examine the overall state of the Medicaid budget in the 2009-11 biennium.
Thank you for your attention to this report.
Sincerely,
karen e. timberlake
Secretary
Referred to joint committee on Finance.
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The committee on Children and Families and Workforce Development reports and recommends:
Relating to Wisconsin Works sanction good cause exceptions and notice of payment reductions and affecting small businesses.
No action taken.
Relating to the adjustment of thresholds for payment and performance assurance bond requirements and affecting small businesses.
No action taken.
Relating to transitional jobs for low-income adults.
No action taken.
Robert Jauch
Chairperson
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