The committee on Agriculture and Higher Education reports and recommends:
Relating to administrative orders and contested cases.
No action taken.
Kathleen Vinehout
Chairperson
__________________
The committee on Environment reports and recommends:
Relating to ensuring that lands acquired with funding from the stewardship program under ss.23.0915 and 23.0917, Stats., are open to public hunting, trapping, fishing, hiking and cross county skiing.
No action taken.
Mark Miller
Chairperson
__________________
The committee on Health, Health Insurance, Privacy, Property Tax Relief, and Revenue reports and recommends:
Relating to the ambulatory surgical center assessment.
No action taken.
Jon Erpenbach
Chairperson
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State of Wisconsin
Department of Health Services
Department of Employee Trust Funds
June 1, 2010
The Honorable, The Senate:
Wis. Stat. 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.
At both the national and state levels, efforts are under way to transform health care through the use of health information technology (HIT). 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 (HIE). Health IT allows comprehensive management of medical information and its secure exchange between health care consumers and providers. Broad use of HIT has the potential to improve health care quality, prevent medical errors, increase the efficiency of care, reduce unnecessary health care costs, increase administrative efficiencies, decrease paperwork, expand access to affordable care, and improve population health.
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WHIO is just one example of Wisconsin's leadership in using electronic health information to drive changes in the health care system and prepares Wisconsin well to move forward in developing statewide HIE-an effort that is proceeding under the stewardship of the WIRED for Health Board. As a result of the ground-breaking work done by WHIO, and once statewide HIE becomes available, 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 be better able to 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 continue to be fully committed to working in partnership with the other health care stakeholders across the state through WHIO.
Please find enclosed the second annual report on the activities of WHIO, as well as a fact sheet on WHIO, and a Frequently Asked Questions document. If you have any questions, please contact Denise Webb, State Health IT Coordinator, at (608) 267-6767.
Sincerely,
karen timberlake
Secretary
Department of Health Services
david a. stella
Secretary
Department of Employee Trust Funds
Referred to committee on Health, Health Insurance, Privacy, Property Tax Relief, and Revenue.
__________________
State of Wisconsin
HIRSP
June 10, 2010
The Honorable, The Senate:
Enclosed is a copy of the HIRSP Authority's 2009 Annual Report. This is to fulfill our requirement of Statutes 149.43(6) and referenced in 13.172(2) of the Wisconsin State Statutes.
If you require any other information please contact our Director of Operations, Josh Weisbrod at 608-441-5777.
Sincerely,
jackie ferris
Executive Assistant
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State of Wisconsin
Department of Administration
June 10, 2010
The Honorable, The Senate:
The Department of Administration is reporting the status of the state's purchase of 10% of its electricity from renewable sources per s.16.75(12)(e). For calendar year 2009, the state has acquired 105,293,604kWh of renewable electricity for the names state agencies; Department of Administration, Department of Corrections, Department of Health Services, Department of Public Instruction, Department of Veterans Affairs and the Board of Regents University of Wisconsin System. The purchase was made from three utilities; MG&E, We Energies and WPPI Energy.
DOA explored a variety of purchasing options for the renewable electricity and settled on two contracts that purchase the renewable electricity through an existing green power purchasing program offered by the utility for all of their customers. The MG&E purchase is under the Business Renewable Energy Program Rider and the We Energies purchase i through their Energy for Tomorrow program. Both these programs offer renewable energy for $0.01 above the regular cost of electricity. The Third purchase through WPPI Energy provides a long-term purchase contract at a fixed price which will provide a hedge against future electricity increases due to increased costs related to carbon reduction efforts.
The state also diversified the sources of the renewable electricity purchased through these three utilities. Renewable electricity is coming from three wind farms in Wisconsin, two wind farms in Iowa, landfill gas from SE Wisconsin and customer sited photovoltaics. Approximately 91% is from wind, 8.8% from biogas and 0.2% from solar photovoltaics.
I welcome your comments or questions.
Sincerely,
david helbach
Secretary State Building Commission
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State of Wisconsin
Government Accountability Board
June 15, 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/
Brozek, Michael RTI Biologics, Inc.
Schimming, Brian RTI Biologics, Inc.
Sellen, Jayme Dairy Business 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
__________________
Southeast Wisconsin
Professional Baseball Park District
June 15, 2010
The Honorable, The Senate:
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District, I would like to inform you that the following documents are now available on our website at
www.millerparkdistrict.com:
Financial Statements-Independent Auditor's Report for Year Ended December 31, 2009 (approved at the meeting of the Board of Directors on June 8, 2010)
Sales Tax Sunset Date Projection (accepted and placed on file at the meeting of the Board of Directors on March 9, 2010)
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In summary, if the current declining growth rate in sales tax revenues should continue, the District will not collect more taxpayer money - it may simply take longer to collect the same amount of money. The good news is the District will continue to pay off the Miller Park debt well before the full term of the original gond payments (30 years), but due to the declining sales tax receipts, it will take longer than originally projected.
Please visit our website to review the reports for additional information or background. Also please feel free to contact me if you should have any questions or should you desire more information. Than you for your continued cooperation and assistance.
Sincerely,
michael r. duckett
Executive Director
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