FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with DJ Vogel, Ghostscale; Lawmakers hear from advocates and opponents of worker’s comp fee schedule

February 9, 2024

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with DJ Vogel, a cybersecurity expert and founding partner of Ghostscale.

The Madison-based consultancy was launched late last year by a group of tech industry veterans that had previously worked together in the mid-2000s.

“Since then, we’ve gotten back together as Ghostscale because we saw there was a gap in the market, especially locally here in Wisconsin, for cybersecurity services,” he said.

Vogel discusses the latest cybersecurity trends, noting the industry has expanded substantially in recent years as online threats have widened their scope.

“Industries that previously were not regulated, such as manufacturing, all of a sudden find that they’re a little bit behind some of the more regulated industries such as financial institutions, and they’re interested in bolstering their own posture,” he said.

The discussion also explores the growing influence of artificial intelligence on the industry. As AI tools such as language learning models rapidly advance, hackers are gaining new tools for accessing and stealing sensitive information.

“It’s a lot easier for a scammer to be able to write a phishing email these days, even without a mastery of the English language, by having a machine, an AI do it for them,” he said. “Writing attack code, writing a threat is all of a sudden much more attainable for people who aren’t necessarily as skilled in the art.”

Vogel also discusses some of the new ways that companies are preparing for potential cyberattacks, such as simulating a crisis to test security tools and analyzing training programs for employees. And he shares some tips on how to be a smart guardian of critical data.

Listen to the podcast.

See the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.

See an earlier story with insights from Vogel.

— Advocates for enacting a fee schedule for worker’s compensation care in Wisconsin say employers “can’t wait another session” for the change, while opponents argue the move would only lead to delays in care.

During a joint public hearing yesterday, the Assembly Committee on Labor and Integrated Employment and Senate Committee on Labor, Regulatory Reform, Veterans and Military Affairs heard testimony on two proposals from the Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council, which includes labor and business representatives.

One of the bills would require the Department of Workforce Development to set maximum fees a health care provider could charge an employer or insurer for benefits provided under the worker’s compensation system. It would also expand PTSD coverage for first responders.

Previous efforts to enact such a fee schedule have failed in recent years.

The other bill would increase the maximum weekly compensation rate for permanent partial disability to $438 a week from $430 for injuries occurring before Jan. 1, 2025, and to $446 for injuries occurring on or after that date. And it would make references in statute gender-neutral.

Rachel Ver Velde, senior director of workforce, education and employment policy for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, argued businesses in the state are at a “significant disadvantage” due to high worker’s comp costs.

“They cannot afford to pay two to four times as much as their out-of-state competitors for the exact same procedures,” she said, adding 45 other states have enacted medical fee schedules.

But Mark Grapentine, a lobbyist and chief policy and advocacy officer for the Wisconsin Medical Society, countered a fee schedule “can’t do anything but make it worse.” He warned the “hassle” of dealing with the worker’s comp payment system could drive doctors away from providing this type of care.

“That’s the fear,” he said. “And if that happens, care is delayed, you miss more time at work, they’re less satisfied with the process.”

Several lawmakers during yesterday’s hearing asked why the Worker’s Compensation Advisory Council has put forth two bills this time rather than one, with Sen. Patrick Testin questioning the decision to pair the PTSD-related provision with the fee schedule.

Testin noted the bill containing the fee schedule provision is much more controversial than the other, citing the “angst and heartburn” expressed by some in the health care industry about the issue. But he said expanding PTSD coverage for first responders is widely supported.

“So why combine the PTSD component and the fee schedule in one bill, knowing full well that the other bill, there’s not a lot of concern or issue there?” the Stevens Point Republican said.

In response, Ver Velde said his question “comes from a negative perspective” and misses out on the concerns of workers and employers.

“You talk about the impacts that hospitals have seen, but employers and workers have had significant impacts recently too,” she said. “It’s unfortunate to say that employers have to take the brunt for government policies that are set on hospitals … Employers shouldn’t have to take the brunt of those costs.”

Meanwhile, Grapentine slammed the two-bill approach as unprecedented, arguing the council “didn’t do the folks that need the PTSD coverage any favors by putting that right next to a poison pill,” referencing the fee schedule provision.

Instead, he argued the best way to reduce worker’s comp health care costs is to avoid injury in the first place, noting Wisconsin is above the national rate for on-the-job injuries.

“There is room to get better,” he said. “We can at least get to the national average, can’t we? … We all work together, continue to reduce the number of injuries, and that will continue the string of eight straight years of worker’s comp insurance premium costs reductions for businesses.”

— U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden this week called for Dem Gov. Tony Evers to join him in requesting funding for care alternatives after the announcement of hospital closures in Western Wisconsin.

“Rural communities, like those in the Third Congressional District, are continuously left on the sidelines when it comes to accessible healthcare, and these hospital closures will only make it more difficult for Wisconsinites to get the medical care they need,” the Prairie du Chien Republican wrote in a letter to Evers.

Hospital Sisters Health System last month announced it would shut down HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire and HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chippewa Falls, while physician network Prevea Health is also closing all of its locations in the state’s western region. The moves will impact 1,082 HSHS workers and 325 Prevea employees, according to the announcement.

Van Orden asked that “all available resources, state and federal, be made available to the state of Wisconsin.”

Evers this week visited Eau Claire with state agency leaders to provide an update on the administration’s efforts to help the impacted communities.

“We’re going to keep working to find immediate and long-term solutions to help address these challenges with every tool and resource that we have at the state level,” Evers said in a statement.

See Van Orden’s release.

See Evers’ release, which details state efforts to address the closures.

See more from the WisPolitics DC Wrap.

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