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Information and Resources for WALA Members
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On July 23, WALA sent letters to the Wisconsin federal congressional delegation, which includes Senator Ron Johnson, Senator Tammy Baldwin, Rep. Bryan Steil, Rep. Ron Kind, Rep. Gwen Moore, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, Rep. Glen Grothman, and Rep. Gallagher, asking them to make sure assisted living providers receive financial relief, personal protective equipment (PPE), COVID-19 testing, priority COVID-19 vaccine, and Hero Pay from the federal government.
You can read a copy of the letter
here
. We will continue to keep you updated on any legislative efforts.
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Membership Matters: A Weekly Dialogue with WALA
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We invite WALA Members to engage in a weekly dialogue opportunity with WALA CEO Mike Pochowski.
When: Friday, July 31 from 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
These meetings will provide:
- Recap of the week behind us – top items of relevance as they affect assisted living providers
- Updates on advocacy initiatives around COVID-19, caregiver funding, workforce, etc.
- Question and Answer opportunity
You can submit your questions in advance to WALA by Wednesday at 5 p.m. via email
info@ewala.org. There will also be opportunity for live Q&A.
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Video Updates from Attorney Bob Lightfoot of Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c.
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Attorney Bob Lightfoot discusses COVID-19 updates for the week of July 20 including a summary of the Assisted Living and Nursing Home webinars conducted by DHS this week including:
- Resubmitting for variance extensions
- Staffing issues
- Staff testing
- CDC return to work guidance
- PPE Optimization
- Salon guidance
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CARES Act Provider Payments Program to Open Second Round of Applications in Late Summer
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Eligible Providers will be Able to Apply for Funds to Offset Expenses and Losses Related to COVID-19 Incurred Between March 1 - August 31, 2020
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During June, specific types of health care providers had the opportunity to apply for pandemic relief funds meant to offset losses and expenses incurred during March, April, and May 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Initial payments have been made and final decisions about additional funding for those providers with expenses and losses greater than the initial payment are being made at this time.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services will be reopening the program at the end of the summer to accept a second round of applications focused on COVID-19-related losses and expenses incurred between March and August 2020. More information about the second round is available on the
program website
including answers to the following questions:
- What providers will be eligible to apply?
- If a provider applied during the first round of funding, can they apply in the second round?
- If a provider didn’t apply or didn’t finish their application for the first round, what can they apply for?
- How will the amount of payments be calculated?
As this website is updated, alerts will be sent out via the program list serv. You can sign up for DHS email updates
here
.
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Notice: Post-Payment Notice of Reporting Requirements
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The purpose of the notice is to inform Provider Relief Fund (PRF) recipients that received one or more payments exceeding $10,000 in the aggregate from the PRF of the timing of future reporting requirements. Detailed instructions regarding these reports will be released by August 17, 2020.
Read the full announcement
here (pdf).
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M3 Insurance Reports Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau (WCRB) has Issued
2020 Workers Compensation Rates
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Effective October 1, 2020 Workers Compensation rates will be
decreasing
again, with an
overall
decrease in WI by an average of 0.93% . Senior Living providers fared even better, specific class code rates listed in the table below.
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Senior Living providers continue to improve their safe patient handling claims, the leading cause of injury with better equipment, improved training and emphasis on a safety culture. Although rates have been declining the last three years, WI still has the highest medical cost for workers compensation in the nation. Employers are implementing Telehealth so employees can have immediate treatment and assistance with access for an improved, more efficient experience.
Another trend resulting in better performance is focus on the total well-being of the employee and integrating workers compensation with all other benefits including health, EAP, career planning, etc. By aligning your benefit package with your employees’ social determinants of health leads to not only a safer environment, but better employee engagement.
The impact of the current pandemic will not be considered until 2022. As per the WCRB, COVID-19 claims will be coded as an Extraordinary Loss Event and will
not
impact the Workers’ Compensation experience modification factor (mod).
This information was provided by M3 Insurance. Current and prospective clients are encouraged to
contact M3 directly
for additional information.
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WALA Virtual Conference Registration Now Open
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WALA Virtual Conference
September 14 - 18
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Thank You to Our 2020 Elite Business Sponsors
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