Earlier this year, you had an opportunity to respond to WiAHC’s Legislative and Regulatory Priorities survey, allowing you to provide your input on what policy issues are most important to you, your organization, and the Wisconsin home health care industry. The purpose of surveying the membership was to collect valuable data to help association leadership develop the WiAHC Policy Agenda and determine what legislative and regulatory issues the organization should make a priority in 2023-2024.

As such, the WiAHC Legislative Committee is pleased to present an outline of the association’s 2023-24 Policy Agenda. The Agenda, which will be used to guide the association’s advocacy efforts over the next two years, is pending final WiAHC Legislative Committee approval before it is sent to the full board for review

In addition to using your feedback to develop the association’s advocacy roadmap, the WiAHC Legislative Committee considered the following criteria when developing the Policy Agenda and issue priorities: 1.) The benefit to WiAHC members; 3.) The extent to which it will improve home health care in Wisconsin; and 3.) The likelihood of legislative/regulatory success.

The WiAHC Policy Agenda provides a broad policy vision for advancing home health care in Wisconsin and identifies the following specific legislative and regulatory goals for 2023-24:

• ·         Regulatory reform legislation to modernize DHS 133, including provisions to better align Wisconsin home care regulations with federal home care regulations.

• ·         Promote public awareness and increase policy influence of home health care, such as the creation of a Home Health Care Advisory Council at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

• ·         Grow/strengthen Wisconsin’s home health care workforce: Secure additional state funding to support    increasing the supply of nurse educators in Wisconsin.

Thank you to all WiAHC members who responded to the Legislative and Regulatory Priorities survey. Your feedback is invaluable to the policy agenda development process.