WED AM News: RoddyMedical expanding sales team as device rolls out to larger markets; Rep. Madison proposes utility bill cap

November 12, 2025

— Wauwatosa startup RoddyMedical plans to roll out its medical line management device at Mayo Clinic’s Rochester campus in the near future.

Founder and CEO Lindsey Roddy shared an update on the business during the Wisconsin Technology Council’s recent Early Stage Symposium in Madison. She said the company has made substantial progress since launching its SecureMove-TLC wearable device in 2022, and currently has 14 hospital customers in six states.

“We’re waiting in the next two weeks, we’ll get approval — because everything went super well with the trial — in Mayo Clinic Regional up in Rochester, so not just Rochester, but the entire region, that’s like 20 hospitals,” she said. “So that’s going to be our biggest rollout.”

The device resembles a blood pressure cuff with a series of secured notches on the outer half, which are meant to hold tubes or cords in place to avoid dangerous incidents, like a line getting accidentally pulled out of the patient.

Roddy noted her background is in intensive care, where she saw first-hand the risks of medical lines getting dislodged. Patients in the ICU can have more than a dozen lines used for life support, critical therapies and other important purposes, she explained. But these patients still need to be moved at times, creating a risk of accidents.

“I started asking questions, trying to figure out, ‘Well, what did I do wrong?’ Found out and verified this is very, very common,” she said.

Other options on the market for securing medical lines will fail under between 4 and 9 pounds of force, according to Roddy. She said her product can handle more than 80 pounds of force.

“It’s legitimately saved lives to date, and then it helps with some other hemodynamic monitoring and adjusting that I have to do as a nurse … so we’re really excited about the technology,” she said.

The company brought on dozens of sales staff at the start of October, going from a team of two to a more than 50-person national sales team. And it recently landed a national contract with Vizient, which Roddy says “puts us effectively on contract with 4,000 hospitals” through that deal alone.

“We’ve got hospitals that don’t even want to trial it, they just want to get approval and purchase and roll out,” she said.

See more coverage from the Early Stage Symposium here.

— State Rep. Darrin Madison, D-Milwaukee, has proposed legislation that would cap utility bills at 2% of household income. A new grant fund would then cover costs above the cap.

Under the legislation being circulated, the Public Service Commission would define household income for eligibility. It would then ensure that the monthly cost of electricity and gas doesn’t exceed 2% of annual income divided by 12.

The bill would create an energy relief fund to cover costs above the cap through the gross revenue tax of public utilities that are now deposited into the energy burden relief fund.

The bill includes other provisions, such as banning public utilities from disconnecting service to residential dwellings for nonpayment if their gross annual income is 300% or less of the federal poverty guidelines.

“This bill is commonsense, necessary protection for people struggling to afford their basic needs,” Madison said at a news conference yesterday.

Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, both knocked the proposal while noting the state budget expanded a sales tax exemption on residential utility bills.

LeMahieu pointed out some bill backers at the news conference held signs that misspelled utility “utilitiy.”

“Legislative Democrats continue to outdo themselves with failed rollouts of unworkable and unreasonable legislation that would set Wisconsin backward,” he said.

Vos, R-Rochester, added, “We won’t support Democrats’ plans to implement another welfare program that expands government at the cost of the middle class.”

— U.S. Rep. Tony Wied is touting legislation aimed at keeping the federal Farm Services Agency open during government shutdowns.

The De Pere Republican yesterday said he’s introducing the Bringing Assistance to Rural Needs during Shutdowns, or BARNS Act, to ensure the FSA is deemed an “essential agency” and kept open during future government shutdowns. Wied says the agency offers critical help to farmers in the state and across the country.

“From disaster relief to loan programs and everything in between, the farmers who rely on these services should not be forced to suffer because politicians in Washington can’t get their act together,” he said in a statement.

His announcement notes farmers say FSA office closures are among their “top issues of uncertainty” amid the shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history. While the USDA resumed operations for the FSA two weeks ago, the release notes, farms have already been impacted by missed loan payments and other deadlines. And some FSA offices have still not reopened.

The bill has bipartisan support and is also backed by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federal and Farm Credit Cooperative Compeer Financial, according to Wied’s office. Compeer Financial provides loans and other financial services to the farm industry and rural communities.

Jase Wagner, the co-op’s president and CEO, says the BARNS Act would “go a long way to provide the certainty rural America needs to continue operating” during future shutdowns.

See more in the release and see the bill text.

— Wisconsin collected more unwanted medications than any other state during this fall’s Drug Take Back effort, the state Department of Justice announced.

The state collected just under 54,000 pounds of unwanted drugs this fall, according to figures provided by the agency.

Since the initiative was created in 2010 under the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the state has collected about 1.4 million pounds of unwanted medications. That puts Wisconsin at third in the country for total collections since then, exceeded only by California with about 1.5 million pounds and Texas with nearly 1.6 million pounds.

“Wisconsin’s continued success with Drug Take Back is really extraordinary,” Attorney General Josh Kaul said in the release. “Thank you to the partners around the state whose efforts have helped make this such an outstanding program in Wisconsin.”

In Wisconsin, the DOJ works with the state Department of Health Services to organize the event, which also seeks to educate people about drug abuse as well as how to store and dispose of medications safely.

At the national level, just under 20.4 million pounds of unwanted drugs have been collected through the effort, DOJ says. Drug Take Back days are held twice a year in the spring and fall.

See the release.

Top headlines from the Health Care Report…

— All 53 U.S. Senate Republicans voted to block U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s amendment to a government funding package that sought to include a one-year extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

Sign up here.

— Madison-based Promega says the FDA has approved a companion diagnostic product that’s used to identify which cancer patients will benefit from certain treatments.

The federal agency approved the life science company’s OncoMate MSI Dx Analysis System to help identify patients with a form of carcinoma that are a good candidate for a therapy called Keytruda and an inhibitor product called Lenvima.

This is the first companion diagnostic from Promega to get FDA approval, according to the company. The approval covers the United States and its territories.

“This approval underscores the critical role diagnostics play in accurately matching the right patients, at the right time with the right therapy,” Promega Global Clinical Market Director Alok Sharma said in a statement.

See more at Madison Startups.

— Twenty-five Wisconsin companies have been chosen for this year’s Vets Ready Employer Initiative, the Department of Workforce Development announced.

The initiative aims to recognize businesses who prioritize hiring veterans while supporting the broader veteran community while offering specialized support to help hires from the military transition back to civilian life. That can include mentorship options, flexible leave, mental health support and more, DWD says.

Eight of this year’s participants are being commended through the program for the first time.

All of the chosen employers will be highlighted at the DWD’s Job Center of Wisconsin website with a unique icon to signify their readiness to hire military veterans. They also receive a certificate and can feature the Vets Ready Winner logo on their own website.

See the release.

— A luncheon event is being held at UW-Milwaukee today focused on AI and the future of manufacturing jobs.

The WisPolitics-WisBusiness-State Affairs panel discussion features DWD Secretary Amy Pechacek; state Rep. Adam Neylon, R-Pewaukee; Katie Malnight-Meisinger of RELY Contract Manufacturing; and Joe Hamann of UWM’s Connected Systems Institute.

It runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. today.

See event details and register here.

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