Governor Tony Evers Introduces Biennial Budget Proposal
On Tuesday evening, Governor Evers gave his Budget Address before a joint meeting of the State Legislature. During his address the Governor declared it “The Year of the Kid”.
After delivering his address, the Joint Committee on Finance formally introduced his Budget Bill (Assembly Bill 50/Senate Bill 45). In the coming weeks, the Governor’s proposal will be analyzed in depth by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau who will create plain language descriptions of the bill, the Legislature will hold public hearings and will begin their work voting on pieces of the state’s two-year budget.
Some opportunities included in the Governor’s proposal:
- Maintaining previous rate increases in the amount of $481 million for Direct Care and Support Services portion of Medicaid Reimbursement for Nursing Homes.
- Funding the Family Care minimum fee schedule for Assisted Living Facilities. Maintaining Family Care fee scheduling funding will cost $203 million in state funds.
- $8.6 million to continue the WisCaregiver Career Program.
- More than $17 million in programs for funding healthcare industry training and workforce development.
- $15 million to create a Complex Patient Pilot Program.
Some challenges included in the proposal:
- Requiring enhanced disclosure and review of ownership of health care facilities, and auditing of those facilities.
- Prohibiting corporate practice of medicine.
- Creating a 6 month grace period for collection of medical debts.
We look forward to continuing to work with Legislators to maintain funding for our nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and funding that helps train, recruit and retain skilled medical professionals at our facilities.
We will also advocate with the Legislature to meet our budget requests and to remove budget provisions which harm our member facilities and make operating more difficult in Wisconsin.
