Physicians advocate for student immunizations

On Tuesday, March 3, multiple physicians advocated for the efficacy, safety and utility of student immunizations in front of a packed room in the Assembly Committee on Constitution and Ethics. The Department of Health Services (DHS) is proposing to amend DHS 144 to bring the state’s student immunization guidelines in line with those recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Manual for the Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases. Under the proposed rule, the state would add the meningococcal ACWY vaccine to the 7^th grade panel (with a 12^th grade booster), push the Tdap vaccine from 6^th to 7^th grade, amend the “substantial outbreak” definitions for Varicella (chickenpox) and mumps as well as make clerical updates and reporting requirements.

L to R: Wendy Molaska, MD, FAAFP, and Jennifer Zeman, MD

Wendy Molaska, MD, FAAFP, and Jennifer Zeman, MD, testified in support of the amendment on behalf of the Wisconsin Medical Society. They highlighted their professional experience in treating patients, fielding parent questions and counseling parents on how to best treat their children, as well as informed the Committee about the rigorous testing that vaccines receive, appropriate recommendations for vaccines and the broad public health success of vaccines. Other physicians that testified were Robert Rohloff, MD, and Heather Paradis, MD, from Children’s Wisconsin; and Michael Kim, MD, Teresa Dulski, MD, and Michelle Brenner, DO, from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. The Wisconsin Association of School Nurses also testified in support.

Also attending the hearing were multiple groups and public members who question the efficacy and safety of vaccines, oppose governmental regulations regarding student immunizations and express concern about vaccine manufacturer liability.

The Committee will be voting on Thursday whether or not to accept the rules from DHS as proposed or submit a formal action to the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR). If the Assembly Committee does indeed make a recommendation, then JCRAR will take up the rule for consideration. The Society will continue to monitor the progress of this regulation.

If you have any questions or would like to get involved with Society advocacy efforts, please contact HJ Waukau.

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Gov. Evers signs four Society-supported HOPE bills

Governor Evers signed four Society-supported HOPE bills into law on Tuesday. These new laws are focused on improving access to treatment for opioid and substance use disorder and received bipartisan support.

The bills are as follows:

• 2019 Act 119: Naloxone Training for County Jails

  Allows county jails to have the same level of access to naloxone as ambulance providers, EMTs, fire or police departments, and directs the Department of Health Services (DHS) to consult with the Department of Corrections to study the availability of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in each prison and develop a proposal to implement a pilot project.

• 2019 Act 120: Recovery Residencies

  Requires DHS to create and maintain a registry of approved recovery residencies. Residencies won’t be able to exclude people solely on the basis of their participation in a MAT program, and approved residencies for consideration may be limited by the geographic preferences of a potential resident. Further, state employees won’t be able to be disciplined for being under the influence of a prescribed MAT on the job without prior progressive discipline.

• 2019 Act 121: PDMP Extension

  Extends the requirement for checking the PDMP to April 1, 2025. The current requirement would end April 1, 2020.

• 2019 Act 122: Peer Recovery Coaches

Defines peer recovery coaches and requires DHS to cover services provided by peer recovery coaches. Also requires DHS to create and maintain a program for treatment of overdose patients including generating data, reports, recommendations and education for evidence-based treatments.

Two more bills, AB 648/SB 600: physical health services and AB 651/SB 590: Good Samaritan extension, are expected to be passed by the Senate before they adjourn in March.

If you have questions, please contact HJ Waukau.

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Transition Zone CME early bird ends tomorrow

Early bird pricing ends tomorrow for our annual meeting CME conference. Navigating the Transition Zone: from adolescence through young adulthood,* April 17-18 in Madison, will focus on mental and behavioral health, sexual health, adolescent lifestyles and complex diseases.

Friday morning will feature these presentations about mental and behavioral health:

• Substance Abuse, Tim Cordes, MD
• Mental Health at the Crossroads of Early Adult Life, Claudia Reardon, MD, MPH
• Bullying Updates: Research, Policy and Clinical Practice, Megan Moreno, MD, MSED, MPH
• The Case for Emotional Trauma as a Major Determinant of Youth Development, Tim Grove, MSSW

Friday will begin with the keynote Health Policy in 2019 and Beyond presented by Amanda Starc, PhD, Associate Professor of Strategy at the Kellogg School of Management and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Developed in partnership with the Medical College of Wisconsin and University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, this conference offers something for the whole health care team! Early bird pricing ends March 6, so register today!

Plan to spend the weekend with colleagues – don’t miss Raising Hope: fostering a healthy tomorrow, the Foundation’s Fundraising Dinner and Silent Auction Friday night or the House of Delegates on Sunday!

*This live activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM.
Approved for 10.75 AAFP Prescribed credits.

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COVID-19 risk low in Wisconsin

The first case in Wisconsin of 2019 novel coronavirus, COVID-19, was confirmed on February 5, and currently 6 patients are pending investigation. Although one case has been detected, immediate health risk to the general public in Wisconsin remains low according to the Department of Health Services (DHS). 

This press release from Governor Evers and DHS Secretary designee Andrea Palm emphasizes hand washing, covering coughs and sneezes and staying home when sick. Additional information, including guidelines for evaluating and reporting potentially infected patients, can be found on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.  

If needed, Wisconsin could access approximately $10 million in federal funding in addition to $1 million from the CDC for immediate assistance. The state has not declared a public health emergency, but the tool does exist if it is deemed necessary. Please stay up to date in case the situation changes.

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A three-point strategy for winning big

“A little March madness may complement and contribute to sanity and help keep society on an even keel.”

If Henry V. Porter, the high school coach who wrote this in 1939, could see how powerfully March Madness grips our nation today, he might have second thoughts about its effect on our sanity… not to mention the alignment of our collective keel.

When it comes to group health insurance, deciding when and how to pivot from one insurance company to another can be as maddening as filling out your bracket ahead of the big dance. Anyone who has wagered even the smallest of amounts, knows how difficult it is to choose the winners among the 68 teams in the tournament. Despite the countless strategies hyped by all sorts of experts, winning most often comes down to plain luck.

But, unlike choosing your March Madness bracket, developing and sustaining a successful employee benefit plan doesn’t have to be a toss-up. You can tilt the court in your favor by following this three-point strategy.

Point #1: Always be shopping

When it comes to staying ahead in the health insurance game, maintaining status quo is the fast lane to self-defeat. Instead, by carefully shopping around each year and being prepared to change, you can spot opportunities for significant savings.

That’s because insurance prices tend to follow a multi-year pattern. Generally speaking, insurance companies offer better rates to entice new groups to switch plans. They then gradually bring the premiums for those plans back up to a more profitable level… this takes between two and four years.

I’m not saying you should change insurance companies every year. But, by shopping around every year, you will be able to compare your plan costs to what is available on the market. At some point, you will see a significant difference between the renewal you’ve been given and what is available elsewhere in the market.

This strategy can benefit both small and larger employers and their employees. The difference maker here is a proactive, knowledgeable insurance advisor. Think of your advisor as a scout who is always on the lookout for the best talent.

Point #2: Know your benchmarks

Large or small, your organization is competing for employees against other employers. That’s why it is essential to constantly monitor the benefits types and benefit levels being offered in your area by similar companies. You need to know if your benefits are going to attract the best players to your team.

Here again, a proactive insurance advisor is your best ally. Speaking from experience, the ability to provide healthcare-only benchmarking across our entire customer base gives our clients a big competitive edge in attracting and retaining talent while controlling costs. Regardless of where you get your benchmarking data, it is important to drill down as deeply as possible to find the specific data most relevant to your business.

Point #3: Innovate your game plan

A company with the right medical plan is a lot like a basketball team with strong fundamentals; no team wins without excellent dribbling, shooting, passing, and rebounding. But these skills alone are not enough to make it to the Final Four. To be the best takes something special; a secret sauce of team spirit, creative leadership and great individual talent.

Your success in attracting and retaining the best possible employees also depends on your ability to offer a fundamentally sound health plan. Exploring and understanding all options for how benefits are paid – from medical gap coverage, HSAs, HRAs, flex spending and many more – and then choosing what is best for your organization is essential. (E.g.: Recently, by altering how the employees paid their deductibles, we helped a client with 60 enrolled employees save over $100,000 on their annual insurance premiums.) 

But, just like in basketball where fundamentals are essential but not enough to win the tournament, to succeed as an employer, you need something special. Truth is, the vast majority of employees want access to voluntary benefits because they cover what may otherwise become a personal financial issue that distracts them from their work.

Renewal madness

Because it never actually ends (unlike March Madness), playing the employee benefits game isn’t about winning year-to-year, it’s about playing to the best of your ability. Bob Knight, one of the winningest coaches of all time said it best: “Discipline is doing what has to be done, when it has to be done, as well as it can be done, and doing it that way all the time.”

At WisMed Assure, we carry out these three points every year, for every client. They simply give us their employee census and we do the rest. If you are not – yet – a client of WisMed Assure, we can do the same for you for free if you provide your census.

I invite you to contact me to explore how these three points can help make your benefit program a winner.

Chris Noffke

chris.noffke@wismedassure.org
608.442.3734 – direct
800.975.3421

WisMed Assure, dba for Wisconsin Medical Society Insurance and Financial Services, Inc. is the Wisconsin Medical Society’s insurance agency.  Profits earned by WisMed Assure directly support the mission and vision of the Society.

A three-point strategy for winning big

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