Last night, the Senate concluded votes on both a House republican CR and a Democratic CR, with both votes failing. With no path forward, the federal government shut down at midnight last night. This means that, among other things, telehealth flexibilities that were set to expire on September 30 are no longer in effect. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has also released a contingency plan outlining its operations during the government shutdown.  More updates will be shared as available.  Alliance members are able to view the Alliance Daily Article for more information about the impacts of a government shutdown.

For the last several years, WiAHC has been advocating to eliminate an outdated state regulation relating to professional advisory bodies for home health care agencies. WiAHC has been advocating for this change since professional advisory committees were removed from federal regulations in 2017, as home health agencies are already overseen by a governing body pursuant to federal regulations.  In addition, home health agencies are also overseen by governing bodies in Wisconsin regulations.  In 2017, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) also put in place federal regulations requiring home health agencies to implement ongoing quality assessment and performance improvement (QAPI) programs.  Essentially, CMS replaced professional advisory committees in federal regulations with the creation of the QAPI program.

In January 2023, WiAHC formally requested that the state Department of Health Services (DHS) eliminate professional advisory bodies for home health care agencies in the agency’s biennial rules review – a process by which DHS makes technical changes and updates to existing state regulations. Our organization’s . rationale is that this would bring Wisconsin’s regulations in line with federal regulations for the reasons addressed above.

Subsequently, the draft DHS biennial rules review document includes the elimination of professional advisory bodies for home health agencies. On September 15, the agency announced that it will hold a public hearing in late September to accept comments – including written comments – regarding the draft biennial rules review document. WiAHC anticipates that it will submit comments at this hearing in support of eliminating the requirement for home health agencies to have professional advisory bodies. It is also worth noting that WiAHC also submitted written comments to DHS in July on the positive economic impact of removing professional advisory bodies from state regulations. These comments were based on economic impact feedback that WiAHC members had provided via a survey. Thank you to those WiAHC members who provided this feedback!

Further updates will be included in future editions of this newsletter.

On September 15, Governor Tony Evers (D) signed an executive order directing state government agencies to make sure that Wisconsinites are able to easily access vaccines, particularly the COVID-19 vaccine. More specifically, the executive order directs the state Department of Health Services (DHS) to “work with the Wisconsin Pharmacy Examining Board, the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI), and any other relevant state agencies and offices to ensure vaccine access for Wisconsinites to the fullest extent of the law and available funding”. The order also requires DHS to issue a standing order to allow Wisconsinites to access the COVID-19 vaccine at pharmacies. Additionally, the executive order requires the OCI to direct health insurance companies to provide full insurance coverage – within existing regulatory authority – for this vaccine.

The governor’s full press release may be viewed here.

On September 9, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) held a press conference to announce the creation of new Speaker Task Forces to address several policy areas. During prior legislative sessions, Speaker Vos has created such task forces, which hold public hearings and meetings to examine specific policy areas with the ultimate goal of drafting related legislation. He indicated that the Assembly will likely vote on such legislation in January and February 2026.

Speaker Vos created the following Speaker Task Forces:

• Protecting Children

• Government Efficiency and Modernization

• Replacing outdated, redundant processes with modern tools.
• Reducing administrative overhead through automation.
• Integrating systems across agencies to avoid duplicate work.
• Using data to predict demand and allocate resources more effectively.

• Elder Services

• Rulemaking

Following Labor Day, the state Legislature resumed its Fall session work period. In addition to state Assembly and Senate committees holding public hearings on various pieces of legislation, both chambers are able to hold session days. These are days during which each respective chamber votes on legislation. Both chambers are able to hold session days in both October and November, with additional possible session days in 2026.

On August 8, Governor Tony Evers (D) signed Senate Bill 43. This legislation allows an advanced practice nurse prescriber who is directly involved with the care of a patient to pronounce the date, time, and place of a patient’s death in order to prepare a death record. Previously, only a physician, naturopathic doctor, coroner, deputy coroner, medical examiner, deputy medical examiner, physician assistant, or hospice nurse had this authority.

Senate Bill 43, which is now 2025 Wisconsin Act 19, became effective on August 10, 2025.

On July 24, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (D) announced that he will not run for a third term as governor in 2026. His video announcement, which includes a transcript, may be viewed here.

This will be the first time since 2010 that an incumbent Wisconsin governor has not run for re-election. Tony Evers was first elected as governor in 2018 when he defeated then-Governor Scott Walker (R). He was re-elected in 2022, when he defeated Republican businessman Tim Michels. Prior to his tenure as governor, he was elected three times – in 2009, 2013, and 2017 – to the statewide position of Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction – the state K-12 education agency. Earlier in his career, he was a teacher, school principal, and school district superintendent.

The 2026 Democratic primary election for governor could be quite crowded. At this time, the following Democrats have announced their candidacy for governor: incumbent Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez and former labor union official and American Family Field beer vendor Ryan Strnad. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has publicly stated that he will take steps toward a candidacy but has not yet done so. State Senator Kelda Roys (Madison) has also indicated that she will likely enter the race. Other possible candidates include Attorney General Josh Kaul, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, former Lieutenant Governor and 2022 U.S. Senate Candidate Mandela Barnes, State Senator Chris Larson (Milwaukee), Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, and former Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler.

On the Republican side, Milwaukee-area businessman Bill Berrien and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann announced their respective candidacies for governor previously. U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany (Minocqua), 2024 Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde, 2022 gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels, and state Senators Patrick Testin (Stevens Point) and Mary Felzkowski (Tomahawk) have also been referenced in various media reports as possible gubernatorial candidates in 2026.

It's possible that more individuals may formally announce their candidacy for governor after Labor Day.

Following the enactment of the federal budget reconciliation bill – otherwise known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) issued a report detailing their projections on how this new federal law will impact Wisconsinites who use programs that DHS administers. The following are highlights of the agency’s analysis:

• Over the next 10 years, 276,175 Wisconsin residents will no longer receive health care insurance coverage provided under either the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Medicaid.
• The increased work requirements in this new law will likely result in 63,000 Wisconsin adults being at high risk of losing Medicaid coverage.
• This new federal law will make it more difficult to qualify for FoodShare (previously known as food stamps) benefits, as this new law imposes new work requirements to individuals up to age 65 (previously the age limit was 54). The new law also no longer exempts parents of children aged 14-17 from work requirements under this program.

A more detailed analysis is available on the DHS website.

On August 11, the state Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) – the state’s occupational credentialing agency – announced that it had published an updated fee schedule for the various occupations that it regulates. DSPS reviews all occupational credentialing fees every two years and modifies the fee amount for a specific profession based on the cost of the agency’s work to license and regulate that profession. It’s important to note that DSPS is almost entirely funded by fee-based revenue, instead of tax revenue.

According to the agency, most impacted professions – including nurses – will see their credential renewal fees increase by less than $20. The full fee schedule – which addresses renewal fees – may be viewed at the DSPS website. 

Since the beginning of 2025, WiAHC’s lobbyists have been aggressively advocating to increase the Medicaid reimbursement rate for home health agency-based nurses from $96.96 per visit to $117.86 per visit, which is 70 percent of the Medicare home health reimbursement rate. Such a rate increase would bring our state in line with the reimbursement rates in other Midwest states. With your help as WiAHC members, we are pleased to inform you that this increase was included in the Fiscal Year 2025-2027 state budget that Governor Tony Evers (D) signed into law on July 3!

More specifically, this budget law provides $294,300 in FY2025-2026 and $588,600 in FY2026-2027 to increase the Medicaid reimbursement rate for home visits performed by licensed practical nurses or registered nurses employed by home health agencies, effective January 1, 2026. Please note that per the funding levels provided above, it appears that this requested rate increase will be fully implemented in the second year of the biennial budget – in FY2026-2027.

In addition to WiAHC’s gratitude to Governor Evers and the Legislature’s budget-writing Joint Committee on Finance, our organization greatly appreciates the leadership of both Senator Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R-Appleton), a nurse practitioner, and Representative Clint Moses (R-Menomonie), a chiropractor. Both of these legislators formally submitted this rate increase request to the Joint Committee on Finance for consideration.