For the last several years, WiAHC has been advocating to eliminate an outdated state regulation relating to professional advisory bodies for home health care agencies.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.