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January 20, 2022

Registration for Spring Conference Now Open! Register TODAY to be Entered to Win $500!

Registration for WHCA/WiCAL's Annual Spring Conference & Expo is now open! Spring Conference will be a fun, engaging, and in-person experience for attendees with opportunities to network with long-term care professionals held at the Hyatt Regency & KI Convention Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin from April 6-8, 2022. Register before Friday, February 18 to be entered into a $500 CASH prize drawing. Winner will be announced during the Expo on Thursday, April 7.
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Member Action Needed! 2022 Workforce Shortage Survey

In 2016, 2018, and 2020, WHCA/WiCAL, along with a coalition of LTC provider associations, joined together to gather data on direct care staffing vacancies in assisted living and nursing homes. As you know, the previous three reports proved to be extremely effective in our advocacy efforts over the last three biennial budgets and helped secure rate increases for SNFs and a continuation of the Direct Care Workforce Funding for assisted living facilities. Wisconsin’s LTC provider associations are now conducting the survey again in an effort to keep our workforce crisis front and center for state legislators.
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UW System Renews Student Health Care Worker Initiative for 2022!

We are pleased to report that the UW System has renewed its very successful Student Health Care Worker initiative through February 28, 2022. During the winter of 2020 -2021, over 2000 students worked in Wisconsin’s health care facilities.   Nursing facilities, assisted living centers and residences for folks living with disabilities, as well as other clinical and health care settings, are eligible to employ the students.
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Speaker Vos Announces Special Assembly Committee on Trade and Supply Chain

Earlier this week, Speaker Robin Vos announced the creation of the Special Assembly Committee on Trade and Supply Chain. The committee will focus on the relationship between the labor shortage and supply chain interruptions, the impacts and barriers this creates for businesses and consumers. The committee will also examine the disruptions in production and distribution of products over the last two years, the lack of workers in the labor market, and Wisconsin’s role in recovering.
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NEW: Nurse Aide Training Opportunity for Facilities Under 2-Year NATCEP Prohibition

Attention: nursing home providers who are currently under a two-year Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program (NATCEP) prohibition - there is a new opportunity for you to receive a temporary waiver from the two-year prohibition, potentially allowing your facility to serve as a site for training. Please note: as with the traditional NATCEP prohibition waiver, a granted waiver would allow a nurse aide training program to be held in, but not by, a nursing facility within that two-year period.
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EMResource Tracking System: Reporting Strongly Recommended for Providers

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) is strongly encouraging nursing homes to report the number of skilled nursing facility (SNF) beds available in their location each day to EMResource as part of a bed tracking system. With the daily reports from nursing homes, DHS hopes the “SNF bed tracker” will provide a real time picture of bed availability across the state, which hospitals can use as they work to identify potential post-acute care placements for their patients.
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Family Care Rate Survey: Responses Needed!

WHCA/WiCAL has heard from providers and other provider associations that many Family Care MCOs still have not communicated with providers about the 3.51% increase approved by DHS in the summer of 2021. The MCOs must send out contract addendums to providers they do business with which must in turn be signed and returned before the funds can be issued.
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