(Division of Banking)
Notice is hereby given that pursuant to ss. 220.02(2) and 227.11(2), Stats., the Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Banking will hold a public hearing at the Department of Financial Institutions, Tommy G. Thompson Conference Room, 5
th Floor, 345 W. Washington Avenue in the city of Madison, Wisconsin, on the 3rd day of May, 1999, at 10:00 a.m. to consider repealing ch. DFI—Bkg 7 relating to real estate mortgage loans. This hearing is held in an accessible facility.
Analysis Prepared by Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Banking
Analysis: To repeal DFI—Bkg 7. Statutory authority: ss. 220.02(2) and 227.11(2), Stats. Summary: Ch. DFI—Bkg 7 provides a definition for real estate mortgage loans and also establishes the documentation that a state-chartered bank must obtain for each real estate mortgage loan that it makes. It is the intention to repeal Ch. DFI-Bkg 7 in it entirety. State-chartered banks compete with other financial institutions and non-financial institution lenders for real estate mortgage loans. The Office of Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC") regulates national banks. The OCC has no regulations regarding the required documentation of real estate mortgage loans. Likewise, no regulator establishes documentation requirements for non-financial institution lenders. In addition to real estate mortgage loans, state-chartered banks make commercial loans, installment loans, agricultural loans, and other types of loans. There are no regulations establishing documentation requirements for these other categories of loans. A one-size-fits-all approach to the documentation of real estate mortgage loans does not recognize the variety of real estate mortgage loan products available in the market, and does not allow state-chartered banks to compete on a level playing field with other lenders. Examiners of the Division of Banking will review that proper documentation is maintained for real estate mortgages loans, in accordance with the principles of safety and soundness, in the same manner that they do for other categories of loans. Agency person to be contacted for substantive questions and responsible for agency's internal processing: Michael J. Mach, Administrator, Division of Banking, tel. 266-0451.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
The proposed rule will not have an effect on small businesses.
Fiscal Estimate
There is no state fiscal estimate effect or local government costs. No funding sources or ch. 20 appropriations are affected. There are no long-range fiscal implications.
Contact Person
For questions concerning the proposed rule, or for a copy of the proposed rule and the full fiscal estimate from the agency upon request and at no charge, contact Michael J. Mach, Administrator, Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Banking, 345 W. Washington Avenue, 4th Floor, Madison, Wisconsin 53703, tel. (608) 266-0451.
Notice of Hearing
Health & Family Services
(Community Services, Chs. HFS 30-)
Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to s. 51.42 (7) (b), Stats., the Department of Health and Family Services will hold a public hearing to consider the creation of ch. HFS 41, Wis. Adm. Code, relating to in-home mental health services for children.
Hearing Information
April 26, 1999 Room B155
Monday State Office Building
From 10 a.m. to 12 noon 1 West Wilson Street
and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. MADISON, WI
The hearing site is fully accessible to people with disabilities. Parking for people with disabilities is available in the parking lot behind the building, in the Monona Terrace Convention Center Parking Ramp and in the Doty Street Parking Ramp. People with disabilities may enter the building directly from the parking lot at the west end of the building or from Wilson Street through the side entrance at the east end of the building.
Analysis Prepared by the Department of Health and Family Services
These are rules for certification of community mental health programs that provide intensive in-home mental health services for children and their families.
The Department under s. 51.42(7), Stats., certifies community mental health programs if they meet requirements set out in the Department's rules. The significance of certification is that it is a condition for receipt of state community aids funding. That means that it is a condition for county use of state community aid funds to finance a county-operated program or to purchase services from another community mental health program. Certification would also be a condition for claiming reimbursement from the Medical Assistance (MA) program for services provided to MA-eligible persons.
The Department certifies several types of community mental health programs. For each type there is a set of rules that a program must comply with to be certified and to keep its certification. Currently the types of programs are those that provide adult/child inpatient services, adult/child outpatient clinic services, adult day treatment services, child day treatment services or adult/child emergency (crisis) services. This order establishes standards for a new type of community mental health program, namely, a program that provides intensive services to children in their own homes.
Medical Assistance has been paying for in-home mental health services for children, with prior authorization, since 1991, after the federal government made changes in the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment Program (EPSDT). If the EPSDT screening indicated that a child needed mental health services, MA had to pay for those services. They could be provided in the child's home or in a clinic setting. For many children, services provided in the home have proven to be more effective than services provided at a clinic. MA began to pay for in-home services for MA-eligible children who were found to have a “severe emotional disturbance" (SED). Those services were reimbursed as HealthCheck (EPSDT) - other services. Department mental health staff developed guidelines for in-home service providers, which have been used also by the MA program. These rules will replace the guidelines.
The rules cover certification procedures; qualifications of personnel; eligibility for services; intake and assessment; enrollment of a child and family; development of the family services plan; services to be available; limits on service intensity and duration; client service records; client rights and resolution of grievances; and client satisfaction indicators.
Contact Person
To find out more about the hearing or to request a copy of the proposed rules, write or phone:
Eleanor McLean
Bureau of Community Mental Health
P. O. Box 7851
Madison, Wisconsin 53707
608-266-6838 or,
if you are hearing impaired,
608-266-7376
If you are hearing or visually impaired, do not speak English, or have circumstances which might make communication at the hearing difficult and if you, therefore, require an interpreter or a non-English, large print or taped version of the hearing document, contact the person at the address or phone number shown above. Persons requesting a non-English or sign language interpreter should contact the person at the address or phone number given above at least 10 days before the hearing. With less than 10 days notice, an interpreter may not be available.
Written comments on the proposed rules received at the above address no later than May 3, 1999 will be given the same consideration as testimony presented at the hearing.
Fiscal Estimate
These are new rules. They consist of standards for community mental health programs that provide intensive mental health services to children and their families.
The Department is directed by s. 51.42(7)(a)1., Stats., to certify community mental health programs, and currently certifies six types of programs. Programs that provide intensive in-home services for children and their families will be a new type.
The effect of having program certification requirements is to make program certification a condition for county purchase of the services with community aid funds. In addition, compliance with the program certification requirements becomes a condition for Medical Assistance (MA) reimbursement for any MA-covered service. It should be noted that MA coverage is not as broad as the coverage described in these rules.
The rules will not affect the expenditures or revenues of local governments. Local governments are not involved with the certification of community mental health programs and do not administer or contribute to the financing of the Medical Assistance (MA) program.
The rules will bring about a modest increase in the work of the Department's program certification staff, but the associated costs can be absorbed because there will only be about 30 programs, at least to start, and the way the rules are written assumes the in-home service programs are operated by or out of mental health outpatient clinics which program certification staff already certify and therefore visit periodically.
Community mental health in-home services for children who are severely and emotionally disturbed (SED), as defined in s. HSS 107.32(1)(a) 2., are currently reimbursed by MA as mental health outpatient clinic services, with rigorous prior authorization. About 30 programs provide MA-reimbursed in-home services to SED children, with MA paying out about $1.5 million for those services in 1996. Once the program certification standards are in place, more programs may seek MA provider certification which would increase MA spending for in-home mental health services for SED children. On the other hand, in-home mental health services for children are a less expensive alternative to inpatient services and are increasingly recognized as equally effective or more effective for many children.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
These are rules for a new type of certified community mental health program, intensive in-home services for children and their families. About 30 programs operated out of outpatient mental health clinics currently provide in-home services for children and their families. The Medical Assistance (MA) program currently reimburses clinics for in-home mental health services provided to MA-eligible children and their families under Department prior authorization guidelines. Once the rules are in effect, programs will have to comply with the rules as a condition for MA reimbursement for provision of MA-covered services.
Almost one-third of the programs currently providing intensive in-home mental health services for children and their families appear to be small businesses as “small business" is defined in s. 227.114 (1) (a), Stats. The rules define what an intensive in-home mental health services program for children and their families is for purposes of county operation or purchase of services and MA reimbursement of providers of services to MA-eligible recipients..
The rules cover the qualifications of professional personnel, which are about the same as the qualifications for professional personnel of other certified community mental health programs included in rules recently amended or under revision; eligibility for services criteria; intake and assessment; development of a family services plan; the services that are to be available; limits on service intensity and duration; client records; and client rights.
Professional skills necessary for compliance with the rules are program administration and the clinical direction and supervision, services facilitation and therapy involved in providing intensive in-home mental health services to eligible children and their families.
Notice of Hearings
Health & Family Services
(Community Services, Chs. HFS 30-)
Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to s. 46.295 (6), Stats., the Department of Health and Family Services will hold public hearings to consider the repeal and recreation of ch. HFS 77, Wis. Adm. Code, relating to criteria and procedures for reimbursement of interpreting services for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Hearing Information
April 29, 1999 Room D103
Thursday North Central Technical College
From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. 1000 W. Campus Drive
WAUSAU, WI
April 30, 1999 Center for the Deaf and Hard
Friday of Hearing
From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. 3505 N. 124th Street
BROOKFIELD, WI
May 3, 1999 Room S 214E
Monday State Laboratory of Hygiene
From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. 2601 Agriculture Drive
(intersects with Pflaum Rd.
a few blocks east of Hwy. 51)
MADISON, WI
The hearing sites are fully accessible to people with disabilities.
Analysis Prepared by the Department of Health and Family Services
This order updates the Department's rules for operation of a program established under s. 46.295, Stats., that reimburses interpreters for the provision of interpreting services for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing. It is necessary to update the rules because the program has made changes in how interpreters are scheduled and in the method of certifying and verifying interpreters who are not certified by the National Registry of Interpreters for the deaf, and because of changes in the generally accepted preferred terminology for referring to people with hearing loss and to the services required to support communication access.
The current rules state that the Department will schedule interpreting services for an individual or organization authorized to receive interpreting services funded by the Department. However, although the Department continues to fund interpreting services and maintain lists of qualified interpreters, it no longer directly schedules interpreters. Requests for interpreting services are received and reviewed by the Department's 6 region-based Coordinators for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services to ensure that the circumstances for which services are requested meet the requirements of the program statute and ch. HFS 77. If qualified, the individual or organization requesting the service is provided with a registry of certified and verified interpreters. The individual or organization then schedules the interpreter.
The current rules do not mention the Wisconsin Interpreting and Transliterating Assessment (WITA) as a way to certify and verify the qualifications of sign language interpreters for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing. Yet in May 1996, the Department began using WITA as the primary method of certifying and verifying interpreters to eventually replace the Wisconsin Quality Assurance Program. Interpreters verified through WITA qualify for reimbursement by the Department for interpreting services provided under ch. HFS 77.
The current rules refer throughout to “hearing impaired persons" and “interpreter services", which are terms also used in s. 46.295, Stats., although undefined there. These are replaced in the revised rules with “deaf or hard of hearing persons" and “interpreting services," which are terms preferred by the deaf and hard of hearing communities.
Contact Person
To find out more about the hearings or to request a copy of the proposed rules, write or phone:
Joan Sanzen
Bureau of Sensory Disabilities
