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  • February 28, 2024 3:32 PM | Anonymous

    Wisconsin Senate Bill 145 – the “APRN bill” - has again passed both houses of the legislature. Far beyond licensure, this bill expands scope of practice and eliminates current law physician collaboration requirements for nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, and clinical nurse specialists.

    Last legislative session, Governor Tony Evers vetoed this legislation. Despite his previous veto, the bill was not improved significantly and still lacks provisions and guardrails that WACEP and other physician groups consider vital. So again, our last hope to protect patient safety in Wisconsin is another veto by Governor Evers.

    Far beyond creating an APRN license, this bill takes physicians out of patient care and jeopardizes patient safety. From independent practice without any physician involvement to prescribing privileges that are regulated solely by the state’s Board of Nursing, this bill disrupts the cooperative and collaborative team-based model of health care that makes Wisconsin a leader in patient care. WACEP believes that emergency care is best led by an emergency physician and that the best solutions to increase access to care in rural areas does not include complete advanced practice nurse independence. Passage of this bill will translate into nurse practitioners working independently in your local urgent care or an emergency department with no physician involvement or backup.

    Urge Governor Evers to veto this ill-advised legislation.

    Your advocacy is needed now!

    Contact the Governor Now


  • September 20, 2023 3:25 PM | Anonymous

    Dear Member,

    I am writing to request your preferred contact information for a study led by Dr. Angie Ingraham at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Ingraham is conducting the Support Interhospital Transfer Decisions (SITe) study. Through this study, Dr. Ingraham seeks to understand providers’ experiences communicating during calls about interhospital transfers for older adults with emergency general surgery (EGS) diagnoses.

    Emergency medicine physicians play a critical role in the transfer of EGS patients. Dr. Ingraham seeks to gather contact information for emergency medicine physicians now, so that you can be reached quickly if you participate in a transfer call that meets study criteria. If you call the UW Health-Meriter Access Center regarding an older EGS patient, you may be contacted about this study. Your contact information will be kept confidential and only used to invite you to complete a 3-minute survey each time you make an eligible call. Participation in the study will not affect transfer requests.

    Please take one minute to share your contact information here: https://go.wisc.edu/egs

    This study has been funded by the National Institute on Aging and approved by the University of Wisconsin Institutional Review Board.

    Thank you for taking the time to support this important effort.

    Please email egstransferstudy@surgery.wisc.edu with any questions. 

    Best regards,
    Dr. Kerry Ahrens

  • September 20, 2023 3:21 PM | Anonymous

    Dear Wisconsin ACEP Member,

    You are invited to take part in this research project entitled “Effects of Legislation on Workplace Violence in Emergency Departments Across Wisconsin.”

    You will be asked to complete a survey to evaluate your experiences surrounding workplace violence. The survey will take about 10-15 minutes to complete.

    More information is provided at the link to the survey below.

    Link: bit.ly/45xFQT0

    You may forward the survey to any colleagues (MD/DO, NP, PA, or RN) who practice in an emergency department in Wisconsin who did not receive the survey.

    Sincerely,

    Corey Sell, MD and Matthew Chinn, MD

    Principal Investigators

    Department of Emergency Medicine

    Medical College of Wisconsin

    Department Phone: 414-955-6450

    E-mail: csell@mcw.edu; mchinn@mcw.edu


  • August 10, 2023 10:37 AM | Anonymous

    The WACEP Spring Symposium Planning Committee is opening a call for presentations for the 2024 Spring Symposium! We are looking for topics you are interested in presenting and you think others will enjoy learning more about! This could include clinical topics, hot topics, interesting cases and more.


    Submit your Presentation Here


    Time slots will range from 15-min to 1-hour sessions. The Spring Symposium will take place March 6-7, 2024 at the Brookfield Conference Center in Brookfield, WI. You must be available to present in-person.


    Presenters will be selected based on topic of interest and brief description of the presentation. Please submit your presentation proposal no later than September 30, 2023 for consideration. If you have questions contact the WACEP office at WACEP@badgerbay.co.


  • August 10, 2023 10:19 AM | Anonymous

    Interested in serving as leader of your professional membership organization?

    The Wisconsin Chapter, ACEP Nominating Committee is now accepting nominations of any member in good standing interested in serving in WACEP leadership through the WACEP Board of Directors, Councillors to ACEP or on the WEMPAC Board.

    Nominate yourself or someone here!

    Nominations are being accepted for the positions listed below (terms begin January 1, 2024):


    WACEP Board of Directors Positions

    • (3) Directors-at-Large on the Board of Directors (4-year term)
    • President-Elect (1-year term followed by 2-year President term and 1-year Past-President term)
    • Secretary/Treasurer (2-year term)
    • (1) Alternate Councillor Position


    WEM-PAC Board Positions

    • Director


    WACEP's Board of Directors meets quarterly and provides ongoing strategic oversight as the organization works to advance the effectiveness, sustainability and mission of the Chapter. Board members are expected to participate in all Board meetings, the annual Spring Symposium, and to volunteer for other activities that will help advance the organization's strategic priorities.

    A councillor/alternate councillor is a key participant in the leadership and development of ACEP policy. The councillors represent WACEP and have the responsibility to voice the concerns of their constituents on the floor of the council meeting and in reference committees. Councillors can also express the will of their constituents by the execution of their votes for or against resolutions and electing the president-elect, Board members and Council officers at the annual meeting.

    WEM-PAC Board of Directors meets 2-3 times per year and makes decisions on PAC contributions. The board is also responsible for promoting the PAC and encouraging donations throughout the year.

    If you or any of your colleagues are committed to serving in a leadership capacity and being a resource for information, education, networking and advocacy, we encourage you to get involved!

    Nominate yourself or a colleague today! Nominations are due by September 15, 2023.


  • August 10, 2023 9:52 AM | Anonymous

    NOW ACCEPTING NOMINATIONS FOR THE
    2023 DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

    SUBMIT NOMINATIONS HERE

    About the Award:

    The WACEP Distinguished Service Award program began in 2018 to annually recognize a WACEP member who has made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of the emergency medicine specialty, and who has demonstrated the ideals of the organization through their ongoing activities and accomplishments. The recipient is recognized annual during the during the annual WACEP Spring Symposium.

    Criteria:

    • Nominee must be a WACEP member in good standing.
    • Nominations should detail the unique or extraordinary impact the nominee has made within emergency medicine.
    • Nominee's contributions may be at the local, state, or national level.

    Past Distinguished Service Award recipients include:

    • 2023 - Julianna Doniere, MD, MPH
    • 2022 - Jeffrey Pothof, MD, FACEP
    • 2021 - Michael Pulia, MD, MS, FACEP
    • 2020 - Michael Repplinger, MD, PhD, FACEP
    • 2019 - Howard J. Croft, MD, FACEP
    • 2018 - Azita Hamedani, MD, MBA, MPH, FACEP


  • June 28, 2023 10:12 AM | Anonymous

    WHN; June 28, 2023

    A Senate committee voted unanimously Tuesday to advance a plan that would extend Medicaid postpartum coverage to a year. 

    Currently, the program offers 60-day postpartum coverage to those making a little more than three times the federal poverty level. Federal officials are considering a request by the state to bump that to 90 days. 

    All five members of the Committee on Insurance and Small Business voted by paper ballot to recommend passage of the yearlong extension. The bill has the support of 72 legislators and a number of healthcare organizations. It received a public hearing in March.  

    “Postpartum care, including recovery from childbirth, follow-up on pregnancy complications, management of chronic health conditions and addressing mental health concerns, is essential to increasing positive health outcomes for mothers and babies, and often requires follow-up beyond the current 60-day period,” bill author Sen. Joan Ballweg, R-Markesan, wrote in testimony submitted at the public hearing. “This is especially true for pregnant women of color, who experience large disparities in maternal mortality before and after childbirth.” 

    Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said at a Wisconsin Health News event in mid-June that he opposes the extension, in part because he wants to encourage people to leave Medicaid as soon as possible and enter the private insurance market.

    The Legislature’s budget-writing committee voted along party lines around two weeks ago to block an attempt by Democratic members to add the proposal to the 2023-25 budget


  • June 19, 2023 2:08 PM | Anonymous

    Last week the Joint Committee on Finance voted to increase funding for MA reimbursement rates for ED physician services to 40% of Medicare rates. This is another needed increase to get Wisconsin in line with the rest of the United States! The budget will be approved in the next couple of weeks by the legislature and then go to the Governor. We expect the legislature to sign off and the Governor to ultimately approve (as he proposed an increase in his executive budget). So unless there is a full veto of the entire budget, we expect this increase to be implemented as of January 1, 2024 (still need to confirm after budget process) and the new rate will continue going forward.

    This is another huge win for Emergency Medicine! Thank you to the WACEP Legislative Committee, Chaired by Dr. Lisa Maurer and WACEP’s Lobbying team Greg Hubbard, AJ Wilson and Dan Romportl at HWZ for their continued advocacy on this important issue.

  • June 14, 2023 8:34 AM | Anonymous

    Hubbard Wilson & Zelenkova

    The State Budget process is moving forward. To date, the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) has taken on mostly low hanging fruit as a local funding (shared revenue) and local taxation stand-alone bill is being negotiated separately.  The local funding increase will have impacts on the rest of the state budget, so until that is resolved, bigger ticket items like MA and DHS will likely wait.   Either way, we expect MA and DHS to be voted on in the next two weeks or so.   Typically, JFC budget deliberation wraps up in early to mid-June and the legislature takes up the budget in the subsequent two weeks.   We still expect that to be roughly the case and hopefully the Governor will be signing a new 2023-25 budget into law in early July.   

    Specific Issues

    Emergency Physician Medicaid Reimbursement Increase:   As you recall, Gov. Evers proposed an executive budget that included a significant increase MA reimbursement for emergency physician codes.  The intent of the Governor’s provision is to increase overall emergency physician services reimbursement rates to 50% of Medicare.  This is part of the biennial budget bill and deliberations.  We are actively lobbying all members of the Joint Finance Committee and will continue to do so to include the Governor’s proposed increase in the final version of the budget.  

    APRN /Nurse Independent Practice and Physician Title Protection:  The Senate Health Committee had a hearing on both SB 143 and SB 145 last week (APRN license/independent practice and Physician Title Protection).   This hearing was arguably premature as negotiations continue between stakeholder, key legislators, and the governor’s office.   As a coalition we continue to fight for four years of clinical experience before an APRN can practice independently, physician title protection, guardrails on APRN pain practice, and ED requirements.  As you recall, our advocacy resulted in the Governor including the following language in his executive budget proposal which he deems part of an overall deal on APRN:  50.36 (3s) of the statutes is created to read:  50.36 (3s) The department shall require a hospital that provides emergency services to have sufficient qualified personnel at all times to manage the number and severity of emergency department cases anticipated by the location. At all times, a hospital that provides emergency services shall have on-site at least one physician who, through education, training, and experience, specializes in emergency medicine.

    We know that the WI Hospital Association is opposed to this language, as is the APRN senate bill author, so it is an uphill battle.  But we continue to work to keep this important provision on the table. 

    Post-partum 12 Month Medicaid Extension:  WACEP is part of a coalition working to extend post-partum benefits to twelve months.  This provision was contained in the Governor’s budget and is also being circulated as stand-alone legislation by republican legislators as LRB 1377/1 and LRB 0324/1 authored by Senators Joan Ballweg and Mary Felzkowski and Representatives Donna Rozar and Tony Kurtz.

    SB 205/AB 173: Suicide Prevention Grants:  WACEP also registered its support for this bill, authored by Sen. Jesse James and Rep. Shae Sortwell, that requires the Department of Health Services to award grants to  organizations or coalitions of organizations, including cities, villages, towns,  counties, and federally recognized American Indian tribes or bands, 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 for the lawful owner of a firearm. A grant recipient must contribute matching funds or in-kind services having a value equal to at least 20 percent of the grant amount.

  • June 12, 2023 10:21 AM | Anonymous

    Healthy Climate Wisconsin invites you to sign onto three letters that support "Solutions for Pollution". 

    Read additional information here: https://www.wiclimatehealth.org/epa 

    If you wish to sign on, please click here: https://www.wiclimatehealth.org/support-clean-air

    The deadline is Friday, June 16th

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