Covering Wisconsin plans to maintain navigators, scale back promotions

The Wisconsin agency that helps people sign up for Affordable Care Act and other health insurance coverage is scaling back its promotions work as federal pandemic relief dollars provided to it by the state come to an end. 

A $3.2 million award announced last week by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will allow Covering Wisconsin to maintain its team of health insurance navigators, Covering Wisconsin Director Allison Espeseth said. 

“The reduction of pandemic dollars and just increasing costs mean we had to make a decision about promotions and outreach, not necessarily putting as much of our funding there,” she said. 

Espeseth expects Covering Wisconsin to have around 44 navigators, a slight decline from the 50 it previously had. Some positions have ended since they were funded temporarily. The amount is still higher than the 30 it had in 2021

The organization will continue to work with other groups to coordinate and collaborate on promotions, including through a partnership between the Department of Health Services and the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. 

Espeseth expects her organization to focus heavily on the Healthcare.gov open enrollment period, which runs from Nov. 1 through Jan. 15. 

One change from previous periods is that those covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which delays the deportation of people without documentation who came to the country as children, can now apply for coverage. 

“We're looking forward to some sense of maybe a little bit of normalcy and a little bit of calm and not so many sudden changes that we have to really quickly message out and quickly try to make sense of, not only for consumers, but also other professionals,” Espeseth said about the upcoming period. 

The most recent period set a record for sign-ups, in part due to outreach efforts to help people transition from Medicaid as renewals returned to the program following a hiatus during the pandemic. That work increased coordination among groups working on health insurance coverage. 

“We’re doing what we can to help encourage all these things to continue,” Espeseth said.

ThedaCare names new leader at London, Waupaca hospitals 

ThedaCare on Tuesday named a new leader for its critical access hospitals in New London and Waupaca. 

Jenny Derks will serve as the vice president of the medical centers and oversee their operations and strategic direction. She previously worked in leadership roles at other Fox Valley hospitals, according to a statement. 

Derks will replace Kellie Diedrick, who is now vice president of critical access hospitals for ThedaCare. 

ThedaCare joined forces with Froedtert Health at the start of the year.

AmeriCorps members set to support healthcare, public health work

New Wisconsin AmeriCorps members will support healthcare and public health. 

The state has received $12.8 million from AmeriCorps to support 24 current programs and five future ones. Serve Wisconsin Executive Director Jeanne Duffy said Tuesday that the dollars will support 875 AmeriCorps members at over 200 service sites. 

"These new AmeriCorps members will help tackle some of our toughest problems by addressing the achievement gap and educational challenges, public health and healthcare access, opioid and substance abuse, economic opportunity and housing availability, conservation and environmental sustainability, and other concerns,” she said. 

At Marshfield Clinic Health System, 80 AmeriCorps members will support nonprofits and public health organizations, while 30 will work as recovery coaches to help those with substance use disorder and provide community education. 

Thirty-four members will work with the Wisconsin Association of Free and Charitable Clinics to support its members and community health departments. 

Fourteen members will support the United Way Fox Cities - Be Well Fox Valley initiative and work to improve health and address the social determinants of health at nonprofits and public agencies. 

The funding will also support Easterseals Wisconsin, where 25 members will provide personal care and therapeutic recreation activities for those with disabilities and veterans.