From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— In the latest episode of “WisBusiness: the Show,” Marquette University’s Kalpa Vithalani discusses how campus innovation leads to better products and breakthroughs in health sectors and other fields.
She touts the impact of “transferring these incredible technologies out of the academic realm, into the real world, doing good.”
The discussion touches on some of the university’s technology transfer success stories, including Marquette Energy Analytics, which grew out of an effort to reliably predict future natural gas demand.
“Born out of that, over the years since the early ‘90s, over 300 students were trained, many publications … millions of dollars in revenues generated for the university before it was spun out,” she said. “But today, as a company that’s located right here in Milwaukee in the Third Ward, Marquette Energy Analytics is today predicting 25% of … the nation’s natural gas consumption.”
She also highlights Rapid Radicals Technology, a startup with a method for treating wastewater much faster than the standard approach. This company won the 2022 Governor’s Business Plan Contest, which is put on by the Wisconsin Technology Council. Vithalani has served as a judge for the contest.
“They’re revolutionizing the wastewater treatment industry,” she said. “Taking down the time it takes from eight hours to 30 minutes to treat both municipal and industrial wastewater.”
Watch the show and find more episodes here.
— Republicans presented a series of bills at a joint committee hearing backing mental health care — including for students — while Dems challenged the viability of getting funding from the Joint Finance Committee.
Rep. Robyn Vining, D-Wauwatosa, said a bill requiring Universities of Wisconsin schools to provide virtual mental health services is “tricky” because no funds are currently attached to it.
“I wish we were here with a bill that’s funded so we could all be in support of it fully,” Vining said yesterday.
Co-authors Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, and Rep. Todd Novak, R-Dodgeville, said they are working on a separate proposal to include funding for these services in the state budget.
SB 306 would require the Universities of Wisconsin to contract with mental health providers for UW institutions with no more than 30,000 enrolled undergraduate students.
James said this excludes UW-Madison, because it already has telehealth services.
James said his bill is important to support students’ academic performance and college experience.
“It is important to ensure that students on all UW campuses from Wisconsin have the same access to these critical 24/7 services when they’re experiencing a mental health crisis,” James said.
Novak said the bill would cost $7 million over the biennium, mirroring the governor’s proposal in the state budget. James said the ultimate decision would be up to the Joint Finance Committee, but a motion has already been presented to members.
John Achter, the senior director for student success and wellbeing at UW, said he supports the bill with funding, but the lack of funding in the current version is “problematic.”
Achter said the wait time for student mental health services at many campuses can be up to six weeks. He added more students are open to seeking help, which has increased demand current university services can’t keep up with.
Achter also emphasized the importance of these services: “Timely access to care can be the difference between staying in school and dropping out,” he said.
— The committees also heard testimony on SB 308, which would award a $1 million grant to Lutheran Social Services to renovate a current facility in Chippewa Falls into a 50-bed treatment center for men with substance abuse disorders.
The facility, Libertas Treatment Center, closed last year after 48 years of operation without notice.
GOP Rep. Clint Moses, a co-author, said Lutheran Social Services has acquired the old facility and plans to operate a new daily treatment center. And this bill would support their efforts.
“Due to the challenges of access to healthcare in western Wisconsin, reopening this facility as a substance use treatment facility will fill a significant void in the area’s growing mental health needs,” said Moses, R-Menomonie. “This bill improves access to much-needed mental health assistance.”
Vining asked whether there was a motion before JFC on the bill. Moses said he authored a motion and is working on it with members of the committee.
Also before the committees yesterday: SB 307, which would require the Department of Health Services to award grants to organizations that provide crisis intervention services to those who contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
Author Rep. Benjamin Franklin, R-De Pere, said this bill is necessary to ensure continued operation since federal funding will no longer be guaranteed, and the 988 line is a “vital service we should be funding.”
— U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, is touting a new Dem committee report finding an estimated 258,396 Wisconsinites would lose health insurance coverage under Republicans’ reconciliation bill.
That includes 110,142 Wisconsinites with Affordable Care Act coverage, and 148,254 on Medicaid, according to the report.
Baldwin in a statement said Republicans’ plan is to “gut benefits for working Americans so that the wealthiest Americans and big corporations can get richer.”
“My phones have been ringing off the hook from Wisconsinites who are terrified their health care coverage is on the chopping block, and now we see just how many of our neighbors are in jeopardy,” Baldwin said. “If Republicans get their way, 250,000 Wisconsinites will lose their coverage as health care costs are jacked up on thousands more. We should be working to make sure more people have health care and lowering costs – not taking it away from the elderly, the disabled, and hardworking families.”
The Joint Economic Committee Minority report combines data estimates from a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the reconciliation package on the amount of people who would lose insurance by 2034 with state-level data on enrollees in Affordable Care Act plans and Medicaid and analyses of how cuts would impact each state.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin Republicans charged Dems with fearmongering, and argued the bill would ensure those in the country illegally don’t have access to the benefits.
“What the bill does is remove 1.4 million illegal aliens from the benefits roll, stops 1.6 million people from receiving benefits in multiple states at the same time, and implements reasonable community engagement requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents. Those receiving their Medicaid benefits lawfully will continue to do so,” U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, said.
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