Scope Statements
Cemetery Board
Subject
Creates Chapters
CB 3,
4, and
5, to reflect the newly created statutory requirements for the transfer of regulatory authority of cemeteries from the Department of Regulation and Licensing to the Cemetery Board and the creation of licensing requirements for cemeteries. The rules will repeal Chapters
RL 52 to
54 to reflect the new statutory requirements.
Objective of the Rule
Policy Analysis
The creation of administrative rules for the licensing and regulation of cemeteries is necessary to implement newly created portions of chs.
157 and
440 of the Wisconsin statutes pursuant to
2005 Wisconsin Act 25 and
2007 Wisconsin Act 174. The regulation of cemeteries was previously under the authority of the Department of Regulation and Licensing. New licensure requirements have also been created for cemeteries.
Statutory Authority
Comparison with Federal Regulations
There is no existing or proposed federal regulation that is intended to address the activities to be regulated by the rule.
Entities Affected by the Rule
Cemetery licensees and applicants.
Estimate of Time Needed to Develop the Rule
25 hours.
Children and Families
Family and Economic Security, Chs.
DCF 101—
Subject
Revises Chapter
DCF 150, relating to medical support and child support guidelines review.
Policy Analysis
The proposed rules will adopt provisions of a new federal regulation on medical support in child support cases and recommendations of the Department's child support guidelines review.
Medical Support
Under s.
767.513, Stats., the court shall specifically assign responsibility for and direct the manner of payment for the child's health expenses in addition to ordering child support for a child. The court must consider the availability of health insurance to each parent, the extent of coverage available to a child, and the cost to the parent for the coverage.
Under the proposed rules, the court may order a parent to enroll a child in health insurance that is comprehensive, accessible to the child, and available at a reasonable cost to either or both parents.
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A health insurance plan will be considered comprehensive if it would cover hospitalization and other medical costs without large out-of-pocket deductibles or co-payments.
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A health plan will be considered accessible if the plan's service providers are located within a reasonable distance from the child's home. In general, service providers will be considered within a reasonable distance if they are located within 30 minutes or 30 miles of the child's residence, with a greater distance allowed in some rural areas.
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The court may order either or both parents to pay for or contribute to the cost of health insurance. Each parent's payment for or contribution to the cost of health insurance will be considered reasonable if it does not exceed 5% of the parent's monthly income available for child support. In applying the 5% standard, the cost of the health insurance is the cost to add the child or children to existing coverage or the difference between the cost of self-only coverage and the cost to that parent after adding the child or children.
The court may incorporate responsibility for a contribution to the cost of health insurance as an upward or downward adjustment to a payer's child support obligation. If there is no health insurance plan available that is comprehensive, accessible to the child, and available at a cost that does not exceed 5% of the parents' combined income, the court may order that either parent enroll the child in such a plan if one becomes available to the parent in the future.
The court may not order a low-income parent to enroll a child in a health insurance plan or contribute to the cost of health insurance unless the health insurance is available to the parent at no cost. “Low-income parent" will be defined as a parent who has a monthly income available for child support that is below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines.
The court may also establish an order for medical expenses that are not covered by insurance. The court must consider each parent's ability to pay these medical expenses.
Guidelines Review
45 CFR 302.56(e) requires states to review, and revise, if appropriate, the state's child support guidelines at least once every 4 years to ensure that their application results in the determination of appropriate child support award amounts. The Department submitted the latest review of the Wisconsin child support guidelines to the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement in January 2008. This review included the following 3 recommendations for changes to the child support guidelines in DCF 150:
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Extend the application of the special provision for low-income payers in s.
DCF 150.04 (4) and Appendix
C from up to 125% of the federal poverty guidelines to up to 150% of the federal poverty guidelines. The current rule provides a schedule with reduced percentage rates to be used to determine the child support obligation for payers with an income below approximately 125% of the federal poverty guidelines if the court determines that the payer's total economic circumstances limit his or her ability to pay support at the level determined using the full percentage rates. For income between approximately 75% and 125% of the federal poverty guidelines, the percentage rates gradually increase as income increases
. The proposed rule will extend use of the reduced percentages to payers with an income up to 150% of the federal poverty guidelines.
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Provide that if a payer could be eligible for the special provision on calculating support for a high-income payer in s.
DCF 150.04 (5) and the special provision on calculating support for shared-placement parents in s.
DCF 150.04 (2), the child support obligation is the lower amount calculated under either formula. The current rule already limits a shared-placement payer who is also a low-income payer to the lower amount calculated under either formula.
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Change the term “serial-family payer" to “serial-family parent" to conform the rule to the intent for serial family cases with a previous shared-placement obligation. The concept behind the special provision for shared-placement parents is that the order is smaller than a full percentage order because the parent has significant placement and is covering the child's basic support expenses while with that parent. The concept behind the special provision for serial families is to give credit for the amount spent on the first family before determining the order for children in the next family. The current serial family provision refers to the “payer" in a shared-placement order in giving credit for the amount spent on the earlier children. The Department proposes to change “payer" to “parent" so a parent who did not owe child support under the shared-placement provision will still be entitled to credit for pre-existing obligations in the determination of support under the serial family provision.
Statutory Authority
Comparison with Federal Regulations
Background on Medical Support
The first federal requirement that medical support be addressed in child support cases was in the Child Support Amendments of 1984. States were required to petition for medical child support in cases enforced under Section IV-D of the Social Security Act (IV-D cases) if health care coverage was available to the noncustodial parent at a reasonable cost. Reasonable cost was defined as coverage available through the noncustodial parent's employment. The IV-D cases included custodial parents receiving AFDC or Medicaid and non-AFDC cases with the custodial parent's consent.
In 1989, a change to
45 CFR 302.56 required states to establish one set of guidelines for setting and modifying child support award amounts within the state with a rebuttable presumption that the guidelines would apply in all child support cases. Among other things, the regulation required that the guidelines must, at a minimum, provide for the child's health care needs through health insurance coverage or other means. It did not specify how health care needs should be addressed.
The Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998 required health care coverage in IV-D cases, while previous law merely required States to petition for inclusion of health care coverage. This Act also directed the Secretaries of the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a Medical Child Support Working Group to identify impediments to the effective enforcement of medical support and to make recommendations to eliminate them. The Working Group released their report,
21 Million Children's Health: Our Shared Responsibility, in August 2000. The report is available at
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/pubs/2000/reports /medrpt/.
New Medical Support Provisions
Several of the key recommendations of the Working Group were adopted in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and new medical support regulations issued on July 21, 2008. (
Child Support Enforcement Program; Medical Support; Final Regulation, 73 Federal
Register 42416). As amended,
42 USC 666(a)(19) provides that all IV-D child support orders shall include a provision for medical support for the child to be provided by either or both parents. State IV-D agencies now have the option of enforcing medical support against a custodial parent if health care coverage is available to the custodial parent at a reasonable cost.
The new regulation on securing and enforcing medical support obligations at
45 CFR 303.31 is more specific than the previous medical support section. It provides that the State IV-D agency must petition the court to include private health insurance that is accessible to the child, as defined by the State, and is available to the parent responsible for providing medical support at a reasonable cost in new or modified court orders for support.
If private health insurance is not available at the time the order is entered or modified, the State must petition to include cash medical support in new or modified orders until health insurance that is accessible and reasonable in cost becomes available. In appropriate cases, as defined by the State, cash medical support may be sought in addition to health insurance coverage.
Cash medical support or the cost of private health insurance is considered “reasonable in cost" if the cost to the parent responsible for providing medical support does not exceed 5% of his or her gross income or, at State option, a reasonable alternative income-based numeric standard defined in the state child support guidelines. In applying the 5% or alternative state standard for the cost of private health insurance, the cost is the cost of adding the child or children to the existing coverage or the difference between self-only and family coverage.
“Health insurance" includes fee for service, health maintenance organization, preferred provider organization, and other types of coverage that is available to either parent, under which medical services could be provided to a dependent child.
“Cash medical support" means an amount ordered to be paid toward the cost of health insurance provided by a public entity or by another parent through employment or otherwise, or for other medical costs not covered by insurance.
On pages 42423-42424 of the preamble to the rule, commenters requested clarification on including unfixed, unreimbursed medical expenses in the definition of cash medical support subject to the reasonable cost limitations because this would unfairly place the burden for these costs on the custodial parent. The Administration for Children and Families responded that they agree it would not be appropriate at the time an order is established to include the cost of future, uncertain, and unspecified medical costs when applying the 5% cost-reasonableness standard. They further state that they do not agree that responsibility for extraordinary medical costs set in a subsequent medical support order should be ordered without any consideration of the obligated parent's ability to pay at the time the cost is incurred or reimbursement is sought.
New Medical Support Provision Affects All Child Support Awards
The new medical support regulations will affect all child support awards, not just IV-D cases. The amended
45 CFR 302.56 requires that state guidelines for setting and modifying all child support amounts within the state address how the parents will provide for a child's health care needs through health insurance coverage or cash medical support, or both, in accordance with
45 CFR 303.31, the new medical support regulation.
Guidelines Review
In addition to the new medical support rule, the existing
45 CFR 302.56(e) requires states to review, and revise, if appropriate, the state's child support guidelines at least once every 4 years to ensure that their application results in the determination of appropriate child support award amounts.
Entities Affected by the Rule
County child support agencies, judges, court commissioners, attorneys, parents, and children
