Some Wisconsin parents have reported struggling to get that shot for their kids — especially when it comes to young children.

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Robert Thornton received personalized hospital care for COVID-19 and pneumonia in his Belvidere, Ill., home in 2024 as part of a Medicare in-home care program that expired October 1. (Photo courtesy of OSF Healthcare)

The federal government shutdown is forcing a reckoning for two remote health care programs because they automatically expired Oct. 1.

The telehealth and in-home hospital care programs were both temporary — but increasingly popular — options for Medicare recipients. They allowed doctors and hospitals to bill Medicare for telehealth appointments and in-home visits from nurses to provide care that is generally only available in hospitals.

The shutdown has prevented Congress from extending them.

More than 4 million Medicare beneficiaries used telehealth services in the first half of the year, according to Brown University’s Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research.

As of last fall, 366 hospitals had participated in the hospital-at-home program, serving 31,000 patients, according to a federal report. The program, officially called Acute Hospital Care at Home, allows patients who would otherwise be hospitalized to get inpatient care at home with a combination of nurse visits, monitoring equipment and remote doctor visits.

The programs have their roots in the pandemic, when doctors and hospitals wanted to keep patients safe from the risks of travel and hospital stays. Both are for Medicare recipients, generally people over 65 or who are disabled. But since many private insurers follow federal guidelines, some physicians have stopped booking telemedicine appointments for non-Medicare patients, rather than risk a change in insurance coverage.

Alexis Wynn, who is in her mid-30s and covered by private insurance through her employer, tried to switch an in-person doctor appointment in Pennsylvania to a video visit last week. The office told her that “all telemedicine is uncovered by insurance as of Oct. 1” — so she had to cancel the routine appointment.

“It was just a follow-up appointment  to make sure the dosing of my medication was still accurate, nothing that was pertinent to being face-to-face,” Wynn said. Her health insurance company later told her it still covered telehealth visits.

There have been other reports of insurers turning down non-Medicare telehealth appointments, said Alexis Apple, director of federal affairs for the American Telemedicine Association, a trade group.

“It’s a misunderstanding,” Apple said. “I’m not really sure what’s happening, but it’s unfortunate and very scary. There’s so much uncertainty out there now, and we see insurance payers start to pull back.”

Both telehealth and home hospital services can be a lifeline for older people, especially in rural areas, where residents may struggle to travel long distances for health care in person.

“In rural America, it’s often telemedicine or no medicine at all,” said Dr. David Newman, chief medical officer of virtual care at Sanford Health in South Dakota, in a September statement supporting congressional action to make Medicare telehealth permanent. Bipartisan bills that would have allowed telehealth to continue stalled in committee earlier this year in the Senate and House.

There’s an exception for telehealth rural residents — but only if they travel to a brick-and-mortar health care facility to get the remote health care service.

“The patients have to go to a clinic to receive that telehealth visit from a provider in a different location,” Apple said. “It kind of defeats the purpose.”

According to the Brown University report, California had the highest rate of Medicare telehealth usage in the first six months of this year, with 26% of beneficiaries using at least one telehealth appointment, followed by 23% in Massachusetts and 21% in Hawaii.

There’s no reason for non-Medicare insurers to stop covering any telehealth visits during the shutdown, and even most Medicare Advantage programs will continue to cover telehealth, according to Tina Stow, a spokesperson for AHIP, a health industry trade association.

Nevertheless, at least some health care centers are refusing to take new telehealth appointments or are converting existing ones to office visits.

“This is causing a lot of confusion. We are still working with our members who are insurers and providers to get a gauge on what folks are doing — because at this point reports we’ve seen seem to suggest it is company by company, provider by provider,” said Sean Brown, a spokesperson for the Health Leadership Council, representing CEOs of health care firms and insurers.

The hospital-at-home program serves a smaller number of patients but its pause has caused more disruption: The federal government required patients to be discharged from the program or transferred to a brick-and-mortar hospital by Oct.1.

The Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic had 30 patients in the program in Arizona, Florida and Wisconsin — all of whom either had to be released from the program or sent to brick-and-mortar hospitals. One of Mayo’s hospitals in Florida was already over capacity and had no room for transfers, according to reporting by Becker’s Hospital Review.

In Massachusetts, which requires commercial insurers to follow Medicare guidelines, all insured patients had to leave the program. Mass General Brigham, which operates many hospitals in the state, has rejiggered its plans to create more home care without relying on the hospital-at-home program, according to the Becker’s report.

Congress was unable to avert a shutdown by late September, and some individual providers and patients were caught unawares.

Nurses on social media discussed losing home-care jobs or being reassigned overnight when the hospital-at-home program closed Oct. 1. They worried about patients being taken away from children at home, or placed in hallway beds at overcrowded emergency rooms because of the abrupt change.

“Management scheduled a random call this morning with a super vague title. Then drop the bomb on us,” wrote one poster in Texas. “So no job. Perfect!”

In a direct message, the poster, who didn’t want their name used for fear of getting in trouble at their hospital, told Stateline, “This obviously wasn’t ideal for the patients. One of them had four children and now could no longer be home with them. Some didn’t even get to have a bed in the hospital because there were none available and had to stay in the ER in a hallway bed.”

Parkland Health System in Dallas started tapering off its hospital-at-home program in September because of the impending shutdown, and the last patients were discharged from the program by Sept. 30 without returning to the hospital, spokesperson Wendi Hawthorne said.

“We are hopeful that Congress will renew this innovative model of care in the future,” Hawthorne said.

Likewise, OSF Healthcare in Peoria, Illinois, had started to wind down its hospital-at-home program “to avoid needing to return multiple patients to a very crowded facility,” said Jennifer Junis, president of OSF OnCall, which handles home hospital care.

There were only three patients in the program Sept. 30, all of whom were ready to be discharged without returning to the hospital, Junis said. Since the program’s start in 2020, it has helped 980 patients with home care through OSF’s Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria.

“It is unfortunate that we will not be able to benefit by treating qualifying patients at home, where they are most comfortable and recover faster,” Junis said. “Our digital hospital program has allowed us to free up beds for our sickest patients who need them most.”

Stateline reporter Tim Henderson can be reached at thenderson@stateline.org.

A teenage student who was injured in the December shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison has been released from American Family Children's Hospital.

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., joined by President Donald Trump, delivers an announcement on “significant medical and scientific findings for America’s children” in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Sept. 22, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Federal health officials suggested a link between the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy as a risk for autism, although many health agencies have noted inconclusive results in the research. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans disapprove of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s job performance and the federal government’s evolving vaccine policy, according to a poll released Thursday by the nonpartisan health organization KFF.

In addition, the vast majority of those surveyed have heard the unproven claims made by President Donald Trump, Kennedy and others in late September that taking acetaminophen, also known as Tylenol, during pregnancy could be one possible environmental factor in a child later being diagnosed with autism.

A total of 77% of the people KFF polled said they knew of the statements, though whether people believe the claims, which have yet to be established by the medical community, varied.

Only 4% of those surveyed said it is “definitely true” that taking Tylenol during pregnancy increases the risk of the child developing autism, and 35% said the claim is “definitely false.” Thirty percent said it is “probably true” and 30% said it is “probably false.”

Combined, 65% said it’s either probably or definitely false to say that taking acetaminophen during pregnancy increases the chance of a child developing autism, a complex disorder that experts believe is the result of both genetic and environmental factors.

When broken down by political party, 86% of Democrats, 67% of independents and 43% of Republicans said the claims were either probably or definitely false.

The survey shows 59% somewhat or strongly disapprove of how Kennedy is handling his new role at the top of the country’s public health infrastructure.

The level of support changes considerably depending on political party affiliation, with 86% of Democrats, 64% of independents and 26% of Republicans disapproving.

A slightly higher number, 62%, either somewhat or strongly disapprove of the United States’ vaccine policy.A similar trend emerged when those polled were broken up by political parties. Eighty-eight percent of Democrats, 67% of independents and 31% of Republicans somewhat or strongly disapproved of vaccine policy.

The survey shows a declining share of Americans have faith in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide trusted information about vaccines, compared with previous KFF polls in September 2023 and earlier this year.

A total of 63% of respondents two years ago trusted the CDC on vaccines, but that has declined to 50%.

Democrats’ faith in the CDC’s vaccine recommendations has dropped from 88% two years ago to 64%, independents have gone from 61% to 47% and Republicans have remained relatively steady, only going from 40% to 39%.

Across political parties, a person’s own doctor as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association remain broadly trusted for vaccine information.Eighty-three percent said they trust their doctor or health care provider, 69% believed information from the American Academy of Pediatrics and 64% had faith in the AMA.

The poll of 1,334 adults took place from Sept. 23 to Sept. 29 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for the full survey. Questions broken down by a person’s political ideology had a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.

A newly added session at the Transporting Students with Disabilities and Special Needs (TSD) Conference next month looks to guide student transportation professionals in prioritizing mental health support for themselves to positively impact themselves and the students they transport.

The “Mental Health First Aid Supports for Transportation” session will be held on Saturday, Nov. 8 and presented by licensed school counselor Kemberly Edwards. She plans to detail the best practices that can put student transportation staff in a better and healthier mental space, which in turn can expand their bandwidth to support and de-escalate students as they work through behavioral and emotional challenges. Edwards plans to go beyond generic self-care techniques and provide concrete strategies to benefit transportation staff as they navigate the day-to-day challenges of their work and help forge strong connections with their students.

Edwards, former director of counseling​ at Mesquite Independent School District in Texas and and manager of the district’s CARE Clinic, has been in the education field for almost 30 years. As a licensed professional counselor, she has a passion for assisting students and educational professionals amid a spike in mental health challenges.

The CARE clinic opened in 2017 to provides free services to Mesquite ISD students, their families and district staff. The clinic held over 12,000 counseling sessions last year. Edwards, who specializes in trauma therapy and has worked closely with her district’s transportation department, described her work as “wraparound services,” covering emotional and social wellness as well as self-regulation. Edwards is currently an educational consultant and has a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s degree in counseling.

The TSD Conference will be held Nov. 6 through Nov. 11 at Embassy Suites Dallas-Frisco Hotel and Convention Center. Visit tsdconference.com to register and view the conference agenda, which includes dozens of educational sessions, hands-on training, networking events, product demonstrations and keynotes all focused on transportation of students with special needs.

Related: TSD Keynote Speaker Looks to Reveal Power of Praise in Student Transportation
Related: Mother of Sandy Hook Victim Brings Student Safety Message to TSD
Related: Former OSERS Leader, Advocate for People with Disabilities to Keynote TSD Conference

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Wisconsin’s commissioner of insurance says the stalemate over Affordable Care Act subsidies at the heart of the government shutdown is already affecting available health insurance options. 

The post Wisconsin insurance commissioner urges extension of ACA tax credits as open enrollment nears appeared first on WPR.

As we age, falls can mean broken bones, concussions and sometimes cause someone to lose their independence. The Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging has programs for Wisconsinites that help prevent falls for themselves and others.

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A new bill in the state legislature would ban hemp-derived THC products in Wisconsin. Producers say it would destroy their businesses.

The post Wisconsin lawmakers and hemp producers both want regulations on THC products. They disagree on how. appeared first on WPR.

A University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire fundraising foundation has sold a 600,000-square-foot former hospital to a local developer with a possibility of it being converted into a medical research park.

The post Former Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire sold for second time this year appeared first on WPR.

Environmental advocates are urging state regulators to bring Wisconsin’s PFAS standards in line with federal drinking water standards for the chemicals despite an ongoing legal challenge.

The post Wisconsin moves to bring PFAS limits in line with contested federal standards appeared first on WPR.

A nurse holds a vial of COVID-19 vaccine and syringe. (Getty Images)

Wisconsin clinics and hospitals are stepping up the rollout of the newest version of the COVID-19 vaccination.

UW Health started offering the new edition vaccine to patients Wednesday and will start scheduling COVID-19 shots beginning Monday.

The Madison-based hospital and clinic system previously began giving the vaccine to people older than 65, considered the highest-risk population for the respiratory infection, according to Dr. Jim Conway, an infectious disease specialist and medical director for the UW Health immunization program.

The 2025-26 version of the vaccine is “built around the most current, circulating strains of COVID that are out there,” Conway said in an interview Wednesday. “As we all learned during the entire pandemic, these strains are mutating constantly, and so they’re constantly changing . . . You try to keep up with what’s the most prevalent.”

Major pharmacy chains typically get the first available allotments of the vaccine and have already, Conway said. In the meantime, UW Health and other health systems have been preparing to offer the shot and preparing their scheduling systems.

The vaccine’s components are developed following discussions among health experts for the World Health Organization and other agencies, Conway said. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) take part in those discussions.

In the weeks leading up to Sept. 19, when the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP) opened its most recent meeting, public health professionals were apprehensive that the body might limit access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has a long history of embracing unfounded claims critical of vaccines. Kennedy replaced the members of the ACIP with people viewed as skeptics of vaccination. Susan Monarez, appointed CDC director earlier this year by President Donald Trump, testified at a congressional hearing in September that Kennedy fired her for refusing to agree to his demand that she endorse ACIP’s recommendations without reviewing them.

Ahead of ACIP’s meeting, “we were all really nervous,” Conway said. Medical professional groups emphasized their endorsement of the COVID-19 shot to counter messaging from Kennedy and other HHS officials that appeared to cast doubt on the vaccine.

“Our professional societies make recommendations every year, but this year we really leaned into making sure people were aware of those and really were promoting those as … evidence-based, data driven,” he said.

When ACIP met just two days after Monarez’s testimony, the panel left in place the CDC’s recommendation for COVID-19 vaccinations from the age of six months to 64. While the panel’s recommendation highlighted concerns about risk, ACIP rejected a proposal to require a prescription for the shot.

“It’s actually in some ways reassuring that even people that may come across as skeptics and doubters at some level as they were repopulating the ACIP — even they couldn’t be swayed from how clear the evidence and the data is that these vaccines are really valuable and really safe,” Conway said. “It was a very pleasant surprise.”

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order to ensure COVID-19 vaccine access and the state Department of Health Services followed up with a health order that functions as a statewide prescription for the shot. The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance also issued guidance that insurance companies in Wisconsin are expected to cover the vaccine without requiring a patient co-pay.

Conway said with those actions insurers began announcing in the last week their coverage plans, which set the stage for providers to set up their vaccine programs.

The first objective of a vaccine is “to prevent you from getting serious disease,” Conway said, so patients don’t have to go to a doctor, “or aren’t getting admitted to the hospital or aren’t getting in the ICU [intensive care unit] or aren’t going on a ventilator or, God forbid, aren’t dying. That’s the ultimate goal, and that’s what the vaccines are really very good at.”

If the shot prevents a person from getting sick from the virus at all, that’s a bonus,  “but we know that that’s never completely possible with these kinds of respiratory viruses,” he added. “But we know that even if you get ill, you’re much more likely to have a very, very mild case.”

Vaccination also helps prevent the spread of disease as it reduces the amount of virus infected people are shedding, Conway said. That can reduce the chances that others will be exposed to the virus, helping to protect people whose immune systems are suppressed due to age or an underlying medical condition.

With enough people vaccinated, that allows  community immunity — “what used to be called herd immunity” — to develop, Conway said. That reduces the risk of outbreaks, “but it also starts to protect the really vulnerable parts of your population.”

The vaccine’s availability came as good news Wednesday to Patricia Fisher, a graduate student and the mother of a six-month-old. Fisher was disappointed this week when the vaccine wasn’t available at her baby’s check-up.

“It’s not just about my baby,” said Fisher,  who is enrolled in a sociology Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin. “The community is safer if more people are vaccinated.”

Fisher has a master’s degree in public health. While her own research focuses on food systems, climate change and health, she said she’s learned enough about population health outcomes to make her alarmed at the prevalence of anti-vaccine attitudes.

“I find it really, really frightening how anti-vaccine some people are, and that people are particularly worried about [vaccines for] COVID, flu and RSV [respiratory syncytial virus],” Fisher said. “COVID is a very clear and present threat to infant health and so it’s very worrying to me.”

Between the national upsurge in measles that has surfaced in Wisconsin, surges in pertussis (whooping cough) in the last couple of years, influenza and COVID-19, “there’s a lot of threats out there,” she said. “I just didn’t think that infectious disease would be the thing about parenting that would be the most stressful, but it definitely is.”

On Wednesday she made an appointment for her child’s COVID-19 shot in mid-October. “I’m thrilled it’s going to be available,” she said.

Conway said the flood of both information and misinformation about the vaccine can overwhelm people. “Sometimes the natural human response is to just hunker down and do nothing,” he said.

He counsels patience and keeping messaging simple: pointing to the decades of data on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines along with the number of professional medical organizations that have made recommendations on the basis of scientific evidence.

“I think people should understand that there’s an opportunity here to protect themselves and their families from these really potentially very unpredictable diseases that can devastate individuals, families and communities,” Conway said.

Though many legislators are currently working toward an agreement, the House of Representatives is not in session and won’t officially reconvene until next week. To Sen. Tammy Baldwin, this means Republicans are “clearly not serious about trying to reopen the government.”

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Ascension Wisconsin facilities are no longer in-network for those on UnitedHealthcare health insurance plans after the two companies failed to reach an agreement over reimbursement rates.

The post Ascension Wisconsin is no longer in-network for UnitedHealthcare patients after contract expires appeared first on WPR.

A Wisconsin bill aimed at cracking down on people who misrepresent their pets as service animals would fine people up to $500 if they provide a fake prescription for an emotional support animal at their home.

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Alcohol-related deaths have declined in Wisconsin since their peak in the COVID-19 pandemic, but they're still dramatically higher than they were just 15 years ago, according to a new report.

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Health insurance premiums for Wisconsin families are projected to spike by hundreds of dollars per month if the tax credits expire.

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U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, speaks at a Senate hearing earlier this month. Warnock and several other lawmakers commissioned a Government Accountability Office report which found that Georgia spent $54.2 million in less than five years to administer the country’s only Medicaid program with work requirements (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Georgia spent $54.2 million in less than five years to administer the country’s only Medicaid program with work requirements – more than twice as much as it spent to provide health care to enrollees, according to an analysis released earlier this month by the Government Accountability Office.

The report suggests it will be expensive to implement the Medicaid work requirements included in the broad tax and spending law President Donald Trump signed on July 4.

Under that law, the 40 states plus the District of Columbia that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act must require the expansion population – low-income adults under 65 with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level – to either work or engage in other activities such as job training or higher education for at least 80 hours per month.

The law is projected to cut federal Medicaid spending by an estimated $911 billion over the next decade, largely because the new work requirements will push people off the rolls. The new rules take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

Supporters say the work requirements will encourage people to get jobs that offer health care coverage. But critics argue that most Medicaid recipients already work, and that most people who lose coverage will be dropped because they fail to meet the reporting requirements.

In October 2020, Georgia received federal approval to test Medicaid work requirements for an initial 5-year period. Its program, called Georgia Pathways to Coverage, is available to people between the ages of 19 and 64, with incomes at or below the federal poverty level, who would not otherwise qualify for Medicaid. Georgia originally planned to begin enrollment in July 2021, but legal challenges delayed implementation until July 2023.

As of May 2025, Georgia reported that 7,463 people were enrolled, far fewer than the 25,000 the state had expected to enroll during the first year of the program.

Between 2021 and June 2025, Georgia spent $54.2 million on administrative costs, compared with $26.1 million on providing medical care, according to GAO. About $50.8 of the administrative spending went toward changing the state’s system for determining people’s eligibility and enrolling them. In addition, the state used $20 million it received under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to advertise the program.

Georgia officials told GAO that the pause in implementation forced them to do some things twice, raising administrative costs by between 20% and 30%. This included IT system changes, coordination with other agencies, and staff training.

“Every state Medicaid program is different, and so the amount or proportion of administrative costs that states may have to upgrade their systems and implement the new work requirements can vary by state,” Michelle Rosenberg, the GAO health care director, said in an interview.

“I suspect some states may require less administrative spending, and other states may require more. But I do think this is the best information we have available on what states’ experiences may be like.”

The Georgia Department of Community Health, which oversees Georgia Pathways to Coverage, did not respond to multiple Stateline requests for comment.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, one of the lawmakers who requested the GAO report, said it proves that Medicaid work requirements are a waste of taxpayer dollars.

“This report shows that Pathways is incredibly effective at barring working people from health coverage and making corporate consultants richer,” the Democrat said in a news release. “If Republican politicians were serious about getting people to work, they would have closed the coverage gap nationwide and cut out the government bureaucracy.”

Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached at schatlani@stateline.org

State Veterinarian Darlene Konkle said the farm spotted signs of the virus and alerted ag officials. The cause of the infection has not yet been determined.

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President Donald Trump on Monday announced an alleged tie between autism and acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. A Wisconsin researcher said identifying why children are born with autism is more complex than the White House let on.

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The President and CEO of Vivent Health, a Milwaukee-based national health care organization that focuses on HIV care and prevention, now leads the International Academy of Sex Research.

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