Defining lead poisoning or lead exposure
The bill modifies the definition of lead poisoning or lead exposure from a level
of lead in the blood of five or more micrograms per 100 milliliters of blood to 3.5 or
more micrograms per 100 milliliters of blood. The bill also changes the
circumstances under which DHS is required to conduct, or ensure there is conducted,
a lead investigation of a dwelling or premises. Under current law, DHS is required
to conduct, or ensure there is conducted, a lead investigation of a dwelling or
premises when DHS is notified that an occupant of the dwelling or premises who is
under the age of six has an elevated blood lead level, which current law defines as
a level of lead in the blood that is either 1) 20 or more micrograms per 100 milliliters
of blood, as confirmed by one venous blood test; or 2) 15 or more micrograms per 100
milliliters of blood, as confirmed by two venous blood tests that are performed at least
90 days apart. Under the bill, DHS is required to conduct, or ensure there is
conducted, a lead investigation of a dwelling or premises when DHS is notified that
an occupant of the dwelling or premises who is under the age of six has lead poisoning
or lead exposure. The bill also requires that when DHS receives such a notification,
DHS must present official credentials to the owner or occupant of the dwelling or
premises or a representative of the owner and request admission to conduct a lead
investigation of the dwelling or premises. As under current law, if an owner or
occupant refuses to grant admission, DHS may seek a warrant to investigate the
dwelling or premises.
Maternal and infant mortality prevention and response
The bill requires the DHS to do all of the following for the prevention of and
response to maternal and infant mortality, including 1) award grants to community
organizations with the aim of preventing maternal and infant mortality, 2) award
grants to support the expansion of fetal and infant mortality review and maternal
mortality review teams statewide and expand technical assistance and support for
existing fetal and infant mortality review and child death review teams, 3) provide
funding and technical assistance to community-based organizations aimed at
preventing infant morality, and 4) provide funding for grief and bereavement
programming for those impacted by infant loss.
Funding for infant testing programs
Under current law, DHS and the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene
operate a newborn screening program under which newborn babies are tested for
certain blood disorders, in addition to hearing loss and critical congenital heart
disease. Current law appropriates funding for the program from fees charged for
various costs associated with the program. The bill creates an additional GPR
appropriation to provide funding for the program and various costs associated with
the program.
Personal protective equipment stockpile
The bill provides funding to DHS to establish and maintain a state stockpile of
personal protective equipment.
Grants for tribal long-term care system development
The bill requires DHS to annually allocate up to $5,500,000 to federally
recognized American Indian tribes and bands located in this state for capital
improvements to tribal facilities serving tribal members with long-term care needs
and for improvements and repairs to homes of tribal members with long-term care
needs to enable tribal members to receive long-term care services at home.
Funding for free and charitable clinics
The bill increases from $1,500,000 to $2,000,000 the amount DHS is required
to award in grants to free and charitable clinics each fiscal year.
Grants to free-standing pediatric teaching hospitals
The bill directs DHS to award grants to free-standing pediatric teaching
hospitals to fund programming related to parenting, educational needs of and
supports for chronically ill children, and case management for children with asthma.
The bill specifies that only free-standing pediatric teaching hospitals for which at
least 45 percent of total inpatient days are provided to MA recipients are eligible for
the grant.
Low-value care analysis grant
In each of the 2023-24 and 2024-25 fiscal years, the bill requires DHS to award
a grant of up to $900,000 to an organization for the purpose of conducting a data
analysis of claims under the MA program and under health insurance plans offered
to state employees to identify low-value care. The grant recipient must report its
findings, including any recommendations for providing effective and efficient care,
to DHS and ETF, who must then distribute the grant recipient's findings to certain
health care providers, health care maintenance organizations, and insurance
companies.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis grant
The bill requires DHS to annually award $250,000 to an organization that
supports and provides services to individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS) to assist individuals with ALS and their families with respite care costs and
costs associated with ALS that are not covered by insurance.
Alzheimer's family and caregiver support
Under current law, DHS distributes funds for certain community aids,
including the Alzheimer's family and caregiver support program. The bill increases
the community aid funding available for the Alzheimer's family and caregiver
support program from not more than $2,558,900 each fiscal year to not more than
$3,308,900 each fiscal year, and broadens financial eligibility for the program by
increasing the maximum joint income an individual and the individual's spouse may
earn per year and remain financially eligible from $48,000 to $60,000.
Healthy aging grant program
The bill requires DHS to award in each fiscal year a grant of $600,000 to an
entity that conducts programs in healthy aging.
Behavioral health and developmental disabilities
Crisis urgent care and observation facilities
The bill requires DHS to award grants to individuals and entities to develop and
support crisis urgent care and observation facilities. The bill also requires DHS to
create a certification process for crisis urgent care and observation facilities. DHS
may limit the number of certifications it grants to operate these facilities, and no
person may operate a crisis urgent care and observation facility without a
certification from DHS. The bill requires DHS to request any necessary federal
approval to add services provided by a crisis urgent care and observation facility as
a type of crisis intervention service reimbursable under the MA program. Under the
bill, if federal approval is either unnecessary or is necessary and is granted, DHS
may provide reimbursement for these services. The bill also requires DHS to include
a process for crisis urgent care and observation facilities to apply for certification of
the facility for the reimbursement of services provided under the MA program.
Mental health consultation program
The bill combines the child psychiatry consultation program with additional
services into a new mental health consultation program. Currently, the child
psychiatry consultation program assists participating clinicians in providing care to
children with mental health care needs and provides referral support and additional
services. The 2019-21 biennial budget act requires DHS to convene interested
persons, including the Medical College of Wisconsin, to develop a plan and standards
for a comprehensive mental health consultation program incorporating various
psychiatry specialties, including addiction medicine; a perinatal psychiatry
consultation program; and the child psychiatry consultation program. This
requirement from the 2019-21 biennial budget act is eliminated in the bill along with
the separate child psychiatry consultation program. The addiction medicine
consultation program currently assists participating clinicians in providing care to
patients with substance use addiction and provides referral support and additional
services, and the bill retains the addiction medicine consultation program as a
separate program.
The bill requires an organization to administer a mental health consultation
program (MHCP) that incorporates a comprehensive set of mental health
consultation services and may include perinatal, child, adult, geriatric, pain,
veteran, and general mental health consultation services. Under the bill, the
organization that currently administers the child psychiatry consultation program
must administer the MHCP during the 2023-24 fiscal year, but DHS may contract
with another organization in subsequent fiscal years. The contracting organization
may contract with any other entity to perform any operations and satisfy any
requirements of the MHCP. The contracting organization must do all of the
following: 1) ensure that mental health providers providing services through the
MHCP have the appropriate credentials as described in the bill, 2) maintain
infrastructure to provide services statewide on every weekday, provide consultation
services as promptly as practicable, 3) report to DHS any information DHS requires,
4) conduct surveys of participating clinicians as described in the bill, and 5) provide
certain specified services. Those specified services are the following: 1) support for
clinicians participating in the MHCP to assist in the management of mental health
problems; 2) triage-level assessments to determine the most appropriate response;
3) diagnostics and therapeutic feedback when medically appropriate; and 4)
recruitment of other practices to a provider's services. The MHCP must be able to
provide consultation services by telephone and email but may also provide services
by other means. In addition to the services required in the bill, which are eligible for
funding by DHS, the contracting organization may provide any of the services
specified in the bill that are eligible for funding by DHS.
Repeal of school-based mental health consultation pilot program
The bill repeals a school-based mental health consultation pilot program
created by
2019 Wisconsin Act 117. Under the current law pilot program, DHS is
required to administer a school-based mental health consultation pilot program in
Outagamie County to assist participating school-based providers in providing
enhanced care to student with mental health care needs, to provide referral support
for those students, and to provide additional services. Under current law, DHS must
conduct annual surveys of the participating school-based providers who use the
consultation pilot program and was required to submit a report on the program to
the appropriate standing committees of the legislature by August 1, 2022.
Grants for peer recovery centers
The bill allows DHS to distribute not more than $260,000 in each fiscal year to
regional recovery centers for individuals experiencing mental health and substance
abuse issues.
Psychiatric residential treatment facilities
The bill establishes a DHS certification process for psychiatric residential
treatment facilities. The bill defines a psychiatric residential treatment facility as
a non-hospital facility that provides inpatient comprehensive mental health
treatment services to individuals under the age of 21 who, due to mental illness,
substance use, or severe emotional disturbance, need treatment that can most
effectively be provided in a residential treatment facility. Psychiatric residential
treatment facilities must be certified by DHS to operate.
The bill also provides that services through a psychiatric residential treatment
facility are reimbursable under the MA program. The bill requires DHS to submit
to the federal government any request for federal approval necessary to provide the
reimbursement for services by a psychiatric residential treatment facility under the
MA program.
Under current law, DHS is required to award grants for certain community
programs. The bill allows DHS to distribute up to $1,790,000 each fiscal year to
support psychiatric residential treatment facilities.
COVID-19 health care workforce pilot project
The bill requires DHS to distribute $621,000 in fiscal year 2024-25 to support
a pilot project in Dane County relating to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on
the health care workforce.
Suicide prevention program
The bill requires DHS to implement a suicide prevention program, coordinate
suicide prevention activities with other state agencies, administer grant programs
involving suicide prevention, and perform various other functions specified in the
bill to promote efforts to prevent suicide. The bill also specifically requires DHS to
award grants to organizations or coalitions of organizations, including cities,
villages, towns, counties, and federally recognized American Indian tribes or bands
in this state, for 1) training staff at a firearm retailer or firearm range on how to
recognize a person that may be considering suicide; 2) providing suicide prevention
materials for distribution at a firearm retailer or firearm range; or 3) providing
voluntary, temporary firearm storage. A grant recipient must contribute matching
funds or in-kind services having a value equal to at least 20 percent of the grant
amount. The bill specifies that DHS may award up to $500,000 in grants for the
suicide prevention program each fiscal year, including up to $75,000 per fiscal year
for the grants related to preventing suicide by firearm.
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline grants
The bill requires DHS to awards grants to organizations that provide crisis
intervention services and crisis care coordination to individuals who contact the
national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline from anywhere within this state. Currently,
DHS partners with Wisconsin Lifeline to provide statewide 988 crisis hotline
services.
Stimulant prevention and treatment response programs
Under current law, DHS awards grants for certain community programs. The
bill allows DHS to distribute up to $1,644,000 in each fiscal year to support stimulant
use prevention and treatment programs and services.
Grants for youth crisis stabilization facilities
The bill requires DHS to award grants to organizations to develop and support
youth crisis stabilization facilities. Under current law, a youth crisis stabilization
facility is a treatment facility with a maximum of eight beds that admits minors to
prevent or de-escalate a mental health crisis and avoid admission to a more
restrictive setting. Youth crisis stabilization facilities must be certified by DHS to
operate.
Peer run respite centers
The bill makes changes to how DHS may distribute grant moneys to regional
peer run respite centers for individuals with mental health and substance abuse
concerns. Under current law, DHS may distribute not more than $1,200,000 in each
fiscal year for this purpose and may use any of three appropriations to fund the
grants. The bill removes the limitation on the amount that DHS may annually
distribute and requires DHS to use only one appropriation to fund the grants.
Early intervention services for children with lead in their blood
Under current law, DHS implements a statewide program, referred to as the
Birth to 3 program, that provides early intervention services for children aged three
and under who are developmentally delayed or are diagnosed as having a condition
that is likely to result in significantly delayed development. The bill ensures that
children with a concentration of lead in their blood of at least 3.5 micrograms per 100
milliliters of blood are eligible for services under the Birth to 3 program. The bill also
allows DHS to develop a methodology to allocate funding for early intervention
services across county programs.
Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deaf-Blind Behavioral Health Treatment
Center
The bill allows DHS, as part of the grants DHS is required to award for
community programs, to distribute up to $1,936,000 in each fiscal year starting with
fiscal year 2024-25 to a statewide provider of behavioral health treatment services
for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind.
Service dog training grants
The bill requires DHS to annually award grants to organizations that train
service dogs for the purpose of assisting providers in attaining accreditation specific
to post-traumatic stress disorder training from Assistance Dog International.
General health and human services
Spinal cord injury research grants and symposia
The bill requires DHS to establish a program to award grants to persons in this
state for research into spinal cord injuries. The grants must support research on new
and innovative treatments and rehabilitative efforts for the functional improvement
of people with spinal cord injuries. Research topics may include pharmaceutical,
medical device, brain stimulus, and rehabilitative approaches and techniques. DHS
must make annual reports to the legislature about the grants. The bill also allows
DHS to hold symposia every two years for grant recipients to present their research
findings.
The bill also requires DHS to appoint a Spinal Cord Injury Council with one
member representing the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, one member
representing the Medical College of Wisconsin, and the following members: 1) a
person with a spinal cord injury; 2) a family member of a person with a spinal cord
injury; 3) a veteran with a spinal cord injury; 4) a physician specializing in the
treatment of spinal cord injuries; 5) a neurosurgery researcher; and 6) a researcher
employed by the Veterans Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs. If DHS is unable to appoint any of the foregoing members, the bill allows
DHS to appoint, in lieu of that member, a member representing the general public.
Members of the council have two-year terms. The bill requires the council to develop
criteria for DHS to evaluate and award grants, review and make recommendations
on grant applications, and perform other duties specified by DHS. Council members
must make written disclosures of financial interests in organizations that the council
recommends for grants.
Making references in the statutes gender neutral
The bill recognizes same-sex marriage by making references in the statutes to
spouses gender-neutral, with the intent of harmonizing the statutes with the
holding of the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584, 192 L.
Ed. 2d 609 (2015), which recognizes that same-sex couples have a fundamental
constitutional right to marriage. The bill also recognizes legal parentage for
same-sex couples under certain circumstances and adopts gender-neutral
parentage terminology.
The bill provides that marriage may be contracted between persons of the same
sex and confers the same rights and responsibilities on married persons of the same
sex that married persons of different sexes have under current law. The bill defines
“spouse" as a person who is legally married to another person of the same sex or a
different sex and replaces each reference to “husband" or “wife" in current law with
“spouse." The bill makes applicable to married persons of the same sex all provisions
under current law that apply to married persons of different sexes. These provisions
relate to such diverse areas of the law as income tax, marital property, inheritance
rights, divorce, child and spousal support, insurance coverage, family and spousal
recreational licenses, consent to conduct an autopsy, domestic abuse, and eligibility
for various types of benefits, such as retirement or death benefits and medical
assistance.
In addition to making statutory references to spouses gender-neutral, the bill
specifies ways in which married couples of the same sex may be the legal parents of
a child and, with some exceptions, makes current references in the statutes to
“mother" and “father," and related terms, gender-neutral.
Under current law, all of the following may adopt a child: a husband and wife
jointly, a husband or wife whose spouse is the parent of the child, and an unmarried
adult. Because the bill makes references in the statutes to spouses gender-neutral,
same-sex spouses jointly may adopt a child and become the legal parents of the child,
and a same-sex spouse of a person who is the parent of a minor child may adopt the
child and become the legal parent of his or her spouse's child.
Under current law, if a married woman is artificially inseminated under the
supervision of a physician with semen donated by a man who is not her husband and
the woman's husband consents in writing to the artificial insemination of his wife,
the husband is the natural father of any child conceived. Under the bill, one spouse
may also consent to the artificial insemination of his or her spouse and is the natural
parent of the child conceived. The artificial insemination is not required to take place
under the supervision of a physician, but, if it does not, the semen used for the
insemination must have been obtained from a sperm bank.
Under current law, a man is presumed to be the father of a child if he and the
child's natural mother 1) were married to each other when the child was conceived
or born or 2) married each other after the child was born but had a relationship with
each other when the child was conceived and no other man has been adjudicated to
be the father or is presumed to be the father because the man was married to the
mother when the child was conceived or born. The paternity presumption may be
rebutted in a legal action or proceeding by the results of a genetic test showing that
the statistical probability of another man's parentage is 99.0 percent or higher. The
bill expands this presumption into a parentage presumption, so that a person is
presumed to be the natural parent of a child if he or she 1) was married to the child's
established natural parent when the child was conceived or born or 2) married the
child's established natural parent after the child was born but had a relationship
with the established natural parent when the child was conceived and no person has
been adjudicated to be the father and no other person is presumed to be the child's
parent because he or she was married to the mother when the child was conceived
or born. The parentage presumption may still be rebutted by the results of a genetic
test showing that the statistical probability of another person's parentage is 99.0
percent or higher. Expanding on current law, the bill allows for a paternity action
to be brought for the purpose of rebutting the parentage presumption, regardless of
whether that presumption applies to a male or female spouse.
Current law provides that a mother and a man may sign a statement
acknowledging paternity and file it with the state registrar. If the state registrar has
received such a statement, the man is presumed to be the father of the child. Under
current law, either person who has signed a statement acknowledging paternity may
rescind the statement before an order is filed in an action affecting the family
concerning the child or within 60 days after the statement is filed, whichever occurs
first. Under current law, a man who has filed a statement acknowledging paternity
that is not rescinded within the time period is conclusively determined to be the
father of the child. The bill provides that two individuals may sign a statement
acknowledging parentage and file it with the state registrar. If the state registrar
has received such a statement, the individuals who have signed the statement are
presumed to be the parents of the child. Under the bill, a statement acknowledging
parentage that is not rescinded conclusively establishes parentage with regard to the
individual who did not give birth to the child and who signed the statement.
The bill defines “natural parent" as a parent of a child who is not an adoptive
parent, whether the parent is biologically related to the child or not. Thus, a person
who is a biological parent, a parent by consenting to the artificial insemination of his
or her spouse, or a parent under the parentage presumption is a natural parent of
a child. The definition applies throughout the statutes wherever the term “natural
parent" is used. In addition, the bill expands some references in the statutes to
“biological parent" by changing the reference to “natural parent."
Gender neutral references on birth certificates
Generally, the bill substitutes the term “spouse" for “husband" in the provisions
of the statutes relating to birth certificates and enters the spouse, instead of the
husband, of the person who has given birth on the birth certificate at times when a
husband would currently be entered on a birth certificate. The name of the person
who has given birth is entered on a birth certificate when the person gives birth to
a child, and current law specifies when another name should be entered on the birth
certificate. Current law requires that if a birth mother is married at any time from
the conception to the birth of a child, then her husband's name is entered on the birth
certificate as the legal father of the child. Under the bill, if a person who gives birth
is married at any time from the conception to the birth of the child, then that person's
spouse's name is entered as a legal parent of the child. The bill also specifies that,
in the instance that a second parent's name is initially omitted from the birth
certificate, if the state registrar receives a signed acknowledgement of parentage by
persons presumed to be parents because the two persons married after the birth of
the child, the two persons had a relationship during the time the child was conceived,
no person is adjudicated to be the father, and no other person is presumed to be the
parent, then the state registrar must enter the name of the spouse of the person who
gave birth as a parent on the birth certificate.
Transfer of security operations at Wisconsin Resource Center
The bill transfers security operations at the Wisconsin Resource Center from
DOC to DHS. The transfer includes the transfer of assets, liabilities, position
authorizations and the incumbent employees holding those positions, tangible
personal property, contracts, and any currently pending matters.
Electrocardiogram screening pilot project for middle school and high
school athletes in Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties
The bill directs DHS to develop a pilot program to provide electrocardiogram
screenings for participants in middle school and high school athletics programs in
Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties. DHS is required to award $4,172,000 in grants
in fiscal year 2024-25 to local health departments to implement the program. The
bill specifies that participation in the program by participants in middle school and
high school athletics programs must be optional.
State long-term care ombudsman
Under current law, the Board on Aging and Long-term Care appoints an
executive director of the Office of Long-term Care Ombudsman. The bill requires
the executive director to employ the state long-term care ombudsman within the
classified service and allows the state long-term care ombudsman to delegate
operation of the office to staff.
housing
Low-income housing tax credit
Under current law, WHEDA may certify a person to claim, for a period of up to
six years, a state tax credit if the person has an ownership interest in a low-income
housing project in Wisconsin and qualifies for the federal low-income housing tax
credit program. The bill increases the period for which the credit may be claimed
from six years to 10 years and increases the amount of credits that WHEDA may
annually certify from $42,000,000 to $100,000,000. The bill also requires that the
project be allocated the federal credit and financed with tax-exempt bonds that are
not subject to the federal credit's volume cap—as opposed to
any tax-exempt bonds,
as required under current law—and allows WHEDA to waive these requirements to
the extent that WHEDA anticipates that a sufficient tax-exempt private activity
bond volume cap under federal law will not be available to finance low-income
housing projects in any year.
Capital reserve fund bonding limit
Under current law, WHEDA issues notes and bonds for most WHEDA
programs, including housing programs for individuals and families of low or
moderate income. Current law prohibits WHEDA from issuing notes and bonds that
are secured by a capital reserve fund if the total aggregate outstanding principal
amount would exceed $800,000,000. The bill increases that limit to $1,200,000,000.
Workforce housing rehabilitation fund
Under current law, as created by
2021 Wisconsin Act 221, WHEDA may make
workforce housing rehabilitation loans to eligible applicants for the cost of certain
kinds of rehabilitation to the applicant's home, subject to certain requirements.
Currently, WHEDA makes those loans from WHEDA's housing rehabilitation loan
fund, which preexisted the creation of the workforce housing rehabilitation loan
program in Act 221.
The bill establishes a workforce housing rehabilitation fund under the
jurisdiction and control of WHEDA for the purpose of providing workforce housing
rehabilitation loans. At WHEDA's discretion, the workforce housing rehabilitation
fund may additionally be used for purposes of marketing WHEDA's programs and
services to the public. The fund consists in part of general purpose revenues
transferred to the fund.
The bill also makes certain changes to the workforce housing rehabilitation
loan program, including requiring that an eligible residence be the loan applicant's
primary residence and authorizing WHEDA to defer or forgive the payment of a
workforce housing rehabilitation loan under certain criteria established by WHEDA.
Rental housing safety grants
The bill establishes a pilot program under which DOA must award one or more
grants to a first class city (presently only Milwaukee) for activities that support the
improvement of rental housing safety in the city, including the enhancement or
creation of a property inspection program and the development and launch of a
searchable online database that discloses the history of rental properties within the
city. The bill authorizes DOA to establish program guidelines for the grant program
under this subsection. Under the bill, the grant program sunsets on June 30, 2025.
Rental assistance grants for homeless veterans
The bill requires DOA to award grants to each continuum of care organization
in this state for the purpose of providing tenant-based rental assistance to homeless
veterans. A continuum of care organization is an organization designated by the
federal Department of Housing and Urban Development that provides funding and
services to alleviate homelessness.
