Organizations Hoping to Build Support for Bill Requiring Hospitals to Communicate Better with Patient's Families

Sunday, November 19th, 2023 -- 10:00 AM

(Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin Public Radio) Organizations advocating for older adults and people with disabilities are hoping to build new support for a bill that would require Wisconsin hospitals to communicate with a patient's family caregivers.

According to Hope Kirwan with Wisconsin Publi Radio, the Caregiver Advise, Record and Enable, or CARE, Act was first introduced in the 2019-20 legislative session. It would require hospitals to allow patients to identify a caregiver when they're admitted to the hospital.

Hospitals would be required to communicate with the designated caregiver before the patient is discharged or transferred to another facility and to provide instruction to caregivers on any medical tasks the patient may need help with when returning home.

During a press conference on Tuesday, AARP Wisconsin state director Martha Cranley said informal caregivers often perform a variety of tasks to help their loved ones, whether it's preparing meals, helping with bathing and even providing wound care.

But she said they need information from health care providers on how to best provide this aftercare. "This part is key," Cranley told reporters. "When caregivers have the training and instruction they need, we can reduce costly re-admissions to hospitals."

Along with AARP Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Aging Advocacy Network, the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources and the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities are behind the push to bring the legislation back this session.

If passed, Cranley said Wisconsin would join 42 other states and three territories that have already adopted the changes. But the 2019 version of the bill did not gain traction in either the state Assembly or Senate and was opposed by the Wisconsin Hospital Association and Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative.

When asked at the press conference why hospital advocates opposed the changes, Janet Zander from the Wisconsin Aging Advocacy Network said health care providers have not had a way to bill insurance companies for time spent educating caregivers.

That is expected to change as early as next year, after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced this month that the agency is finalizing separate billing codes for caregiver training services.

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