Register

Hearing Date:   May 18, 1999

Extension Through:   January 25, 2000

EMERGENCY RULES NOW IN EFFECT

Commerce

(PECFA - Chs. Comm 46-47)

Rules adopted creating ch. Comm 46, relating to “Petroleum Environmental Cleanup Fund Interagency Responsibilities,” and relating to sites contaminated with petroleum products from petroleum storage tanks

Exemption From Finding of Emergency

On September 22, 1999, the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules adopted a motion pursuant to s. 227.26 (2) (b), Stats., that directs the Departments Commerce and Natural Resources to promulgate as an emergency rule, no later than October 22, 1999, the policies and interpretations under which they intend to administer and implement the shared elements of the petroleum environmental cleanup fund program.

In administering the fund, the Departments had previously relied upon a Memorandum of Understanding for classifying contaminated sites and addressing other statements of policy that affect the two Departments. The rule that is being promulgated details the policies and interpretations under which the agencies intend to administer and guide the remedial decision making for sites with petroleum product contamination from petroleum product storage tank systems.

The rule defines “high priority site,” “medium priority site, ” and “low priority site,” and provides that the Department of Natural Resources has authority for high priority sites and that the Department of Commerce has authority for low and medium priority sites. The rule requires transfer of authority for sites with petroleum contamination in the groundwater below the enforcement standard in ch. NR 140 from the Department of Natural Resources to the Department of Commerce. The rule also establishes procedures for transferring sites from one agency to the other when information relevant to the site classification becomes available.

Publication Date:   October 20, 1999

Effective Date:   October 20, 1999

Expiration Date:   March 18, 2000

Hearing Date:   November 18, 1999

EMERGENCY RULES NOW IN EFFECT

Commerce

(Financial Resources for Communities,
Chs. Comm 105 to 128)

Rules adopted creating ch. Comm 111, relating to certified capital companies.

Finding of Emergency

The Department of Commerce finds that an emergency exists and that the adoption of the rule is necessary for the immediate preservation of public health, safety and welfare.

Analysis of Rules

Statutory Authority: ss. 560.31, 560.34 (1m) (b), and 227.24

Statutes Interpreted: ss 560.31, 560.34 (1m) (b), and 227.24

On June 17, 1999, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) held a public hearing on proposed rules in response to 1997 Wis. Act 215. That act provides tax credits to persons that make certain investments in certified capital companies that are certified by Commerce. Legislators and persons interested in the rules testified at the hearing and requested that Commerce adopt an emergency rule that would (1) allow persons to apply for certification to become certified as capital companies, (2) allow persons to apply to make a certified capital investment in a certified capital company, and (3) set forth the operational and reporting requirements of certified capital companies required under the law. Since then, articles in the newspaper as well as business journals have pointed out the lack of venture capital in the state hinders high-tech growth and making that capital available will benefit Wisconsin as it has done in other states. This emergency rule is necessary to begin implementation of the law and to place Wisconsin in a better position to make capital available to draw high-tech industries, create new businesses, and expand existing businesses that will ultimately create new jobs and benefit all its citizens.

Publication Date:   July 23, 1999

Effective Date:   July 23, 1999

Expiration Date:   December, 19, 1999

Hearing Date:   August 17, 1999

Extension Through:   February 16, 2000

EMERGENCY RULES NOW IN EFFECT

Crime Victims Rights Board

Rules adopted creating ch. CVRB 1, relating to the rights of crime victims.

Finding of Emergency

The Crime Victims Rights Board finds that an emergency exists and that rules are necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety or welfare. A statement of the facts constituting the emergency is:

The Crime Victims Rights Board was created by 1997 Wis. Act 181, effective December 1, 1998, to enforce victims' rights established by Wis. Const. Art. I, s. 9m, adopted in 1993. The Wisconsin Constitution states that the Legislature shall provide remedies for the violation of victims' constitutional rights. The Board's process represents the only means of enforcing the remedies available to victims of crime who are not provided with the rights guaranteed to them by the Wisconsin Constitution and the Wisconsin statutes. The Board can issue reprimands to correct violations of victims' rights, seek forfeitures in egregious cases, and seek equitable relief to enforce victims' rights. The Board can also work to prevent future violations of victims' rights by issuing reports and recommendations on crime victims' rights and services.

Complaints must be presented to the Department of Justice before they can be presented to the Board. The Department estimates that it receives 200 complaints annually involving the treatment of crime victims. The Department has no authority to enforce victims' rights; the Department can only seek to mediate disputes. Of those complaints, approximately 25 per year cannot be resolved to the parties' satisfaction, and are therefore ripe for the Board's consideration. There are presently 5 complaints that could be referred to the Board if the Board were able to receive and act on complaints.

Until the Board establishes its complaint process by administrative rule, it is unable to provide the remedies constitutionally guaranteed to crime victims.

Publication Date:   September 17, 1999

Effective Date:   September 17, 1999

Expiration Date:   February 14, 1999

Hearing Date:   November 9, 1999

EMERGENCY RULES NOW IN EFFECT

Health & Family Services

(Management, Technology, etc., Chs. HFS 1-)

A rule was adopted revising chapter HFS 12, Appendix A, relating to caregiver background checks.

Finding of Emergency

The Department of Health and Family Services finds that an emergency exists and that the rules are necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety or welfare. The facts constituting the emergency are as follows:

Since October 1, 1998, the Department has been implementing statutes that became effective on that date that require use of uniform procedures to check the backgrounds of persons who apply to the Department, to a county social services or human services department that licenses foster homes for children and carries out adoption home studies, to a private child-placing agency that does the same or to a school board that contracts for day care programs, to provide care or treatment to persons who need that care or treatment, or who apply to a regulated entity to be hired or contracted with to provide services to the entity's clients or who propose to reside as a non-client at the entity. The statutes, ss. 48.685 and 50.065, Stats., direct the regulatory agencies and regulated entities to bar persons, temporarily or permanently, depending on the conviction, finding or charge, who have in their backgrounds a specified conviction, finding or charge substantially related to the care of clients, from operating a service provider organization, providing care or treatment to persons who need that care or treatment or otherwise having contact with the clients of a service provider.

The new statutes, commonly referred to as the Caregiver Law, were effective on October 1, 1998, for applicants on or after that date for licensure, certification or other agency approval, and for persons applying to be hired by or to enter into a contract with a regulated entity on or after that date to provide services to clients or to take up residence as a non-client at a regulated entity.

For regulated agencies approved before October 1, 1998, and for persons employed by, under contract to or residing as non-clients at regulated entities before October 1, 1998, the Caregiver Law's required uniform procedures and “bars” are to apply beginning on October 1, 1999. That is to say, by October 1, 1999, background checks, using the uniform procedures, are to be completed for all service providers who were approved before October 1, 1998, and for all employes, contractors and non-client residents employed by, under contract to or living at a regulated entity before October 1, 1998, and action taken to withdraw approval, terminate employment or end a contract, as appropriate.

To implement the new Caregiver Law, the Department on October 1, 1998, published administrative rules, ch. HFS 12, Wis. Adm. Code, by emergency order. Chapter HFS 12 included an appendix which consisted of a list of crimes. The original list specified 159 crimes for conviction of any one of which a person would be barred permanently (45 crimes), all programs, or would be barred temporarily, all programs, pending demonstration of rehabilitation, from being approved to be a service provider or from providing care or treatment to clients or otherwise having access to clients. The October 1998 emergency rules were modified in December 1998 and February 1999 by emergency order, and were replaced by permanent rules effective July 1, 1999. The Crimes List in the current permanent rules specifies 117 crimes with 9 being permanent bar crimes for all programs.

This order again modifies ch. HFS 12, but only the Crimes List and not the text of the chapter. The number of specified crimes is reduced to 79, with 6 of them, all taken from ss. 48.685 and 50.065, Stats., being permanent bar crimes for all programs. The change to the ch. HFS 12 Crimes List is being made at this time because the 1999-2001 Budget Bill, now before the Legislature but not likely to take effect before October 1, 1999, is expected to provide for a more modest Crimes List than the one now appended to ch. HFS 12. This means that the Legislature intends that some persons who under the current rules would lose their jobs effective October 1, 1999, will be able to keep their jobs. The Department has the authority to further modify the Crimes List so that it corresponds to how the Legislature, after having heard arguments since October 1998 about how the Caregiver Law should be amended and implemented, wants it to work. This is what the Department is doing through this order.

Publication Date:   September 16, 1999

Effective Date:   September 16, 1999

Expiration Date:   February 13, 2000

Hearing Date:   October 28, 1999

EMERGENCY RULES NOW IN EFFECT

Health & Family Services

(Community Services, Chs. HFS 30-)

Rules adopted revising ch. HFS 50, relating to adoption assistance programs.

Finding of Emergency

The Department of Health and Family Services finds that an emergency exists and that rules are necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety or welfare. The facts constituting the emergency are as follows:

This rulemaking order amends ch. HFS 50, the Department's rules for facilitating the adoption of children with special needs, to implement changes to the adoption assistance program statute, s. 48.975, Stats., made by 1997 Wisconsin Act 308. Those changes include permitting a written agreement for adoption assistance to be made following an adoption, but only in “extenuating circumstances;” permitting the amendment of an adoption assistance agreement for up to one year to increase the amount of adoption assistance for maintenance when there is a “substantial change in circumstances;” and requiring the Department to annually review the circumstances of the child when the original agreement has been amended because of a substantial change in circumstances, with the object of amending the agreement again to either continue the increase or to decrease the amount of adoption assistance if the substantial change in circumstances no longer exists. The monthly adoption assistance payment cannot be less than the amount in the original agreement, unless agreed to by all parties.

The amended rules are being published by emergency order so that adoption assistance or the higher adoption assistance payments, to which adoptive parents are entitled because of “extenuating circumstances” or a “substantial change in circumstances” under the statutory changes that were effective on January 1, 1999, may be made available to them at this time, now that the rules have been developed, rather than 7 to 9 months later which is how long the promulgation process takes for permanent rules. Act 308 directs the Department to promulgate rules that, among other things, define extenuating circumstances, a child with special needs and substantial change in circumstances.

Publication Date:   November 16, 1999

Effective Date:   November 16, 1999

Expiration Date:   April 13, 2000

EMERGENCY RULES NOW IN EFFECT

Health & Family Services

(Medical Assistance, Chs. HFS 101-108)

Rules were adopted revising chs. HFS 101 to 103, and 108, relating to operation of BadgerCare health insurance program.

Finding of Emergency

The Department of Health and Family Services finds that an emergency exists and that the rules are necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety or welfare. The facts constituting the emergency are as follows:

This order creates rules that specify how a new program called BadgerCare, established under s. 49.665, Stats., will work. Under BadgerCare, families with incomes up to 185% of the federal poverty level, but not low enough to be eligible for regular Medical Assistance (MA) coverage of their health care costs, and that lack access to group health insurance, are eligible to have BadgerCare pay for their health care costs. The order incorporates the rules for operation of BadgerCare into chs. HFS 101 to 103 and 108, four of the Department's chapters of rules for operation of the MA program.

BadgerCare is projected to cover over 40,000 currently uninsured Wisconsin residents, including more than 23,000 children, by the end of 1999.

Benefits under BadgerCare will be identical to the comprehensive package of benefits provided by Medical Assistance. The existing Wisconsin Medicaid HMO managed care system, including mechanisms for assuring the quality of services, improving health outcomes and settling grievances, will be used also for BadgerCare.

Department rules for the operation of BadgerCare must be in effect before BadgerCare may begin. The program statute, s. 49.665, Stats., was effective on October 14, 1997. It directed the Department to request a federal waiver of certain requirements of the federal Medicaid Program to permit the Department to implement BadgerCare not later than July 1, 1998, or the effective date of the waiver, whichever date was later. The federal waiver letter approving BadgerCare was received on January 22, 1999. It specified that BadgerCare was not to be implemented prior to July 1, 1999. Once the letter was received, the Department began developing the rules. They are now ready. The Department is publishing the rules by emergency order so that they will go into effect on July 1, 1999, rather than at least 9 months later, which is about how long the process of making permanent rules takes, and thereby provide already authorized health care coverage as quickly as possible to families currently not covered by health insurance and unable to pay for needed health care.

The rules created and amended by this order modify the current Medical Assistance rules to accommodate BadgerCare and in the process provide more specificity than s. 49.665, Stats., about the nonfinancial and financial conditions of eligibility for BadgerCare; state who is included in a BadgerCare group and whose income is taken into consideration when determining the eligibility of a BadgerCare group; expand on statutory conditions for continuing to be eligible for BadgerCare; exempt a BadgerCare group with monthly income at or below 150% of the federal poverty level from being obliged to contribute toward the cost of the health care coverage; and set forth how the Department, as an alternative to providing Medical Assistance coverage, will go about purchasing family coverage offered by the employer of a member of a family eligible for BadgerCare if the Department determines that purchasing that coverage would not cost more than providing Medical Assistance coverage.

Publication Date:   July 1, 1999

Effective Date:   July 1, 1999

Expiration Date:   November 28, 1999

Hearing Dates:   August 26, 27, 30 & 31, 1999

Extension Through:   January 26, 2000

EMERGENCY RULES NOW IN EFFECT

Health and Family Services

(Health, Chs. HSS/HFS 110-)

Rules were adopted revising ch. HFS 119, relating to the Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan.

Exemption From Finding of Emergency

Section 149.143 (4), Stats., permits the Department to promulgate rules required under s. 149.143(2) and (3), Stats. by using emergency rulemaking procedures, except that the Department is specifically exempted from the requirement under s. 227.24(1) and (3), Stats., that it make a finding of emergency. These are the rules. Department staff consulted with the HIRSP Board of Governors on April 30, 1999 on the proposed rules, as required by s. 149.20, Stats.