From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— Marshfield Medical Center-Beaver Dam is set to join UW Health under a new agreement with the health system.
While today’s release touts a “definitive agreement” for the move, the framework for transitioning services is still being developed, according to the release. About 425 employees will join UW Health once the process is finalized.
Dr. Brian Hoerneman, president and CEO of Marshfield Clinic, says “we’re committed to ensuring a seamless experience for patients, providers and staff” during this period of transition.
While patients will keep receiving care at the Beaver Dam campus in the meantime, an official closing is expected before the end of the year. After that point, UW Health says it will begin “phased integration efforts” to expand specialty services at the site and ramp up recruitment there.
UW Health says patients in the region will benefit from expanded access to coordinated care and specialty services through its health system.
The medical campus in Beaver Dam includes a hospital as well as a skilled nursing facility and independent senior living. It also operates two assisted living facilities and primary care clinics in Columbus, Horicon and Waupun.
While more work remains, UW Health Chief Strategy Officer Carey Gehl says the agreement represents an important milestone.
“We are committed to helping patients receive care as close to home as possible while also creating additional access points to meet the growing demand across UW Health,” Gehl said in the announcement.
See the release below.
— GOP state Rep. Robert Wittke says lawmakers are seeking answers from the Department of Health Services over a proposed change to IRIS, the state’s Medicaid-funded long-term care program.
“The only thing I can say is that they may have put the brakes on a little bit based on some of the outside things that they see with the lawsuits in New York,” Wittke told “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “The biggest question that we have wanted to ascertain is why go to a single payer? There’s nothing in this document that we’ve received that tells us why.”
Wittke and State Sen. Eric Wimberger, co-chairs of the Legislative Audit Committee, sent a letter to DHS officials requesting documents and answers to a list of questions after the company initially selected to manage the program was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice in New York.
“Once this lawsuit came up, we got very concerned, mainly because we’re concerned with the people it serves,” Wittke said.
Earlier this year, DHS announced its notice of intent to select Public Partnerships LLC as the new vendor to handle finances and paperwork for the state’s IRIS program, consolidating the program from multiple vendors to one.
Since then, the U.S. DOJ sued PPL and the New York Health Department over accusations of Medicaid fraud and accused the state of failing to police the company. The company has also faced a bipartisan firestorm of criticism from state lawmakers over how it was chosen and the company’s rollout in New York.
“One of the things I would like to see is the brakes put on,” Wittke said. “No contract executed. Questions answered. And then go through if you have to and redo the process that’s more transparent to people and move forward that way.”
The state’s transition to PPL is now on pause while DHS reviews formal protests that have been filed with the state.
See more from the show.
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Press Releases
– UW Health and Marshfield Medical Center-Beaver Dam: Complete definitive agreement
