The Milwaukee Health Department is now without the help of federal employees who were assisting the department with the response to the ongoing lead crisis at the city's school district.
The post Federal layoffs mean Milwaukee loses CDC help with school lead crisis appeared first on WPR.
The James H. Shannon Building on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. (Photo by Lydia Polimeni, National Institutes of Health)
Sixteen states with Democratic attorneys general sued the National Institutes of Health on Friday, claiming the agency has purposefully delayed and disrupted medical research grant awards and terminated grants that had already been issued.
In an 82-page complaint that names Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and NIH Director Jayanta Bhattacharya as defendants, the attorneys general said since President Donald Trump retook office, NIH has delayed the review approvable process for grants that should have been awarded.
The agency has refused to pay for multi-year grants that were approved under previous administrations, citing disagreements over race and gender issues, the suit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts says.
Massachusetts, California, Maryland, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin filed the suit.
The attorneys general in those states praised the NIH as “the crown jewel” of health research that has fueled medical breakthroughs and spurred economic growth across the country.
“That critical work is now in jeopardy,” they wrote. “By law, NIH provides much of its support for scientific research and training in the form of grants to outside institutions. Since January, however, the current Administration has engaged in a concerted, and multi-pronged effort to disrupt NIH’s grants.”
Starting last month, NIH sent “hundreds of letters” to research institutions in the states canceling grants that had already been issued. The institutions were told the grants “no longer effectuate… agency priorities,” according to the complaint.
Those cancellations stem from three executive orders Trump signed on his first day back in office targeting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and recognition of transgender people. Agency leaders followed up with directives to pause related grants.
The letters to research institutions declare “the grant in question has been terminated because of some connection to ‘DEI,’ ‘transgender issues,’ “vaccine hesitancy,” or another topic disfavored by the current Administration,” the attorneys general wrote.
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
The department is also facing a suit from a wider group of Democratic states over the cancellation of other grants that were initially issued during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those states say the department overrode extensions of the grants and rescinded $11 billion in funding that has led to layoffs and work stoppages.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered those grants to be temporarily restored as the case unfolds.
When a child's birth is covered by Medicaid, county social service agencies may require the father to pay back Medicaid costs as part of a child support order. (Getty Images)
Gov. Tony Evers is asking Wisconsin counties to give up a practice they’ve relied on for years: clawing back money from the absent fathers of children whose mothers were Medicaid recipients when they gave birth.
The practice is called birth cost recovery. When Medicaid covers the birth of a child and the father doesn’t live with the rest of the family, county social service departments and the courts may add a requirement to repay Medicaid to a father’s child support order.
In his 2025-27 state budget proposal, Evers wants to end the practice, and he’s offering counties a deal to give it up: a nearly $4 million boost for child support agencies.
Although permitted under federal law, only two states now authorize the use of birth cost recovery: Kansas and Wisconsin. Proponents of the practice have argued that it’s only fair to try to recoup state funds spent on the birth of a child if the child’s father can afford it.
But research at the Reproductive Equity Action Lab (REAL) questions the benefits of birth cost recovery when compared to the potential harm it can cause. The lab is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
“This is a policy that takes money out of low-income families’ hands in the state of Wisconsin to pay the state back for the social services they receive,” Klaira Lerma, the lab’s associate director, told the Wisconsin Examiner. “This creates financial strain on families, and families view it as government greed.”
This week REAL published a policy brief on birth cost recovery. The brief summarizes research by the lab’s director, Professor Tiffany Green, along with Lerma and other contributors, that contradicts assumptions proponents have made.
There were 14,880 unmarried Wisconsin residents who gave birth in 2023. The brief reported that unmarried parents already tend to have lower incomes than married parents, making a birth cost recovery debt especially challenging.
Wisconsin gives counties the option to use birth cost recovery, but doesn’t require it. If a county takes the option, 15% of the money it recovers goes to the county’s child support program, while 85% goes back to the state Medicaid program.
ABC for Health, a Madison-based nonprofit public interest law firm, has been campaigning against birth cost recovery for more than a decade and succeeded in persuading Wisconsin’s two largest counties to drop the practice. Dane County stopped filing new birth cost recovery claims in 2020 and stopped pursuing old outstanding cases in 2023. Milwaukee County quit the practice in 2024.
As part of their investigation of the practice, REAL researchers interviewed 40 Wisconsin parents who had been subject to birth cost recovery.
Parents who live together aren’t subject to birth cost recovery — only noncustodial fathers. Lerma said parents told them they weren’t even aware they might be on the hook to repay Medicaid until there was a formal court order for child support.
“They described a lack of transparency and feeling bamboozled” when they were told about paying back Medicaid, Lerma said.
“Parents clearly described how Birth Cost Recovery payments reduce fathers’ ability to financially support their child(ren) by taking money out of their budget,” the policy brief states.
“You’re taking away the way somebody can feed their family,” one parent is quoted as saying. “You’re taking away child care, how somebody can provide for their family. You’re taking away [money for] health care.”
Another told researchers that a birth cost recovery payment “going back to the state is money that can be put into the child.”
For fathers in low-wage jobs, having to pay off a birth cost recovery debt “puts them in risk of losing housing, the ability to put food on the table,” a parent told the researchers.
“It also causes many marginalized fathers to throw up their hands and leave the lives of their children. And eventually, they may get caught, held in contempt. And once again, that whole cycle just starts,” the parent said. “They’re not going to get a job. They have this on their record. They’re not going to get housing. They’ll be always underemployed.”
Lerma said that in families covered by Medicaid, children are more likely to be at risk for illness. Birth cost recovery, she said, is effectively “taxing these families who are more likely to be facing significantly worse health outcomes.”
The brief cites research that found the financial strain from having to pay a birth cost recovery debt was associated with lower employment levels and less ability to maintain child support payments.
“In contrast, evidence shows eliminating Birth Cost Recovery appears to increase child support compliance,” the brief states.
“Ending Birth Cost Recovery across the state may reduce harm on Wisconsin families and result in more child support money going to children and their custodial parent,” the brief concludes.
To offset the expected loss counties would experience by giving up birth cost recovery entirely, Evers’ budget proposal sets aside $3.8 million over the two-year budget for county child support programs.
The brief says implementing that proposal could ensure “that county child support agencies remain fiscally solvent to carry out their mission.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Chewbacca, Yoda and Princess Leia watched over Joe Mannchen and colleagues as they worked on their Yahara House computers, some designing birthday cards for fellow clubhouse members.
Taped above each desktop, the “Star Wars” cutouts distinguished the computers from others — a more lively equipment tracking method than four-digit codes, Mannchen explained.
“We’re not numbers,” the 15-year clubhouse veteran joked. “Why should our computers just be numbers in the system?”
The cutouts accented colorful decor inside Yahara House, which overlooks Lake Mendota on Madison’s isthmus. A pride flag, bulletin boards and photos covered bright blue walls of a mansion built in 1902 and once occupied by Adolph Kayser, a former mayor. Hanging beside century-old stained glass: a “Pets of Yaharans” photo display of cats Pumpkin Boy, B.B. King Cat, Mookie, Spock and Purr. Photos of human Yaharans hung elsewhere.
Yahara House, part of the nonprofit Journey Mental Health Center, is a community mental health program focused on building relationships and job opportunities. The clubhouse model reduces hospitalizations and boosts employment in adults with serious mental illnesses, experts and advocates say.
Mannchen, who once edited videos professionally, uses those skills to help create updates for members. He and others are considering starting a podcast to promote Yahara House to the community.
“At the risk of being a little saccharine, it brings me joy,” he said.
Other members work in the Yahara House offices, reception desk or its kitchen, the Catfish Cafe. Still others fill temporary jobs at local shops, restaurants and the State Capitol. A bulletin board celebrates three dozen members with permanent jobs.
Wisconsin has few places like this. Yahara House is one of seven clubhouses in the state and just three with international accreditation, according to Clubhouse International’s latest count. Neighboring Michigan has 37 accredited clubhouses. Advocates want Wisconsin to learn from Michigan to expand clubhouses statewide.
Reimbursement from Medicaid, the joint state and federal program to help low-income residents afford care, funds nearly all of the Yahara House budget, said director Brad Schlough.
But budget cuts in Washington may threaten that funding. Seeking to pay for tax cuts and some mandatory spending increases, the Republican-led U.S. House has proposed cutting up to $880 billion in spending over the next decade from the committee that oversees programs including Medicare and Medicaid. For a variety of reasons, including the large size of the program, Medicaid is a likely target for significant cuts.
“I’m not sleeping well at night worrying about the human costs the proposed funding cuts will inevitably bring,” Schlough said.
The Trump administration has already made cuts to COVID-era mental health funding and eliminated an office focused on helping older adults and people with disabilities live independently.
More than one in three U.S. adult Medicaid enrollees have a mental illness. Most in Yahara House rely on Medicaid for services within and outside of the clubhouse.
The clubhouse already struggles financially to serve members waiting to enroll or ineligible for Medicaid support services.
“Clubhouses are intended to be open to anyone in the community with a mental illness. The problem is that the funding doesn’t always follow that,” Schlough said.
When members do join the right Medicaid programs, Wisconsin requires hours of recordkeeping for clubhouses to get paid. That contrasts with Michigan, which streamlines payments for clubhouses.
Yahara House members pride themselves on finding solutions. The community is celebrating 25 years of international accreditation this year and has served adults with mental illness for much longer.
Its longest-tenured member is Michael Larscheid at 47 years. His photo hangs on a bulletin celebrating continuing education. He recently started swimming classes.
While many of his friends have moved or lost touch over the years, Yahara House remains a constant.
“This is my family here,” he said.
Larscheid works weekdays in the Catfish Cafe, calling out lunch orders that cost around $1 each.
Mark Benson, a 40-year clubhouse member, joins him, preparing food for about 30 people. Benson researches recipes for twice-weekly desserts that cost 50 cents. In February, he debuted a diabetic-friendly pecan pie.
Benson is retired from outside work. But when he first joined, Yahara House connected him with a job at an upscale furniture store.
“I was vacuuming around these like three $30,000 consoles and glass tables,” he recalled. “I had to be very careful where I went. It was a good job.”
People with mental illness can often find jobs on their own, but some struggle in workplaces that lack flexibility for mental health days, Schlough said. They might also face transportation barriers. Yahara House keeps a list of more flexible Madison-area employers. The clubhouse trains staff for each job, allowing them to fill in when a club member can’t make a shift.
Yahara House also provides safe spaces during the day and on holidays and fosters community through weekly events like karaoke.
Schlough calls clubhouses an “antidote for loneliness.”
Despite the advantages, Wisconsin has seen limited clubhouse expansion.
That surprised Sita Diehl, public policy and advocacy director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Wisconsin chapter. She sees the model as underutilized.
Wisconsin prioritizes other types of services.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ latest budget proposal does not include specific funding for clubhouses, state Department of Health Services spokesperson Jennifer Miller confirmed in an email to WPR and Wisconsin Watch.
Still, Evers’ budget would expand the state’s behavioral health system, fund suicide prevention and improve crisis response, Miller wrote, adding: “Supporting people with mental health concerns is a top priority” and that the administration worries that federal Medicaid cuts would harm Wisconsin residents.
Substantial funding changes for clubhouses would require legislative and state health department approval. There are no current plans to seek a new clubhouse waiver, Miller said but added that expanding Medicaid like other states would boost resources for many services.
Yahara House’s Medicaid reimbursements flow through the state’s Comprehensive Community Services waiver for people with mental health or substance use issues that could lead to hospitalization. That program best accommodates easier-to-document treatments like psychotherapy, which unfold in hourlong blocks of time, Schlough said.
Yahara House serves members more sporadically throughout the day, leaving staff to spend as many as six hours daily logging time spent serving members — necessary for reimbursement, Schlough said. The exercise conflicts with a clubhouse spirit that encourages staff to treat members more as peers than patients.
The clubhouse doesn’t pepper new members with questions about diagnoses and limitations.
“We say, ‘We’re glad to see you,’” Schlough said. “What do you like to do? What are your interests?’”
As a lifelong Madisonian, Rick Petzke probably drove past Yahara House thousands of times. He didn’t know it could help him until his tour almost five years ago.
He joined and received a temporary job at Hy-Vee.
“They liked me so well, they hired me permanently,” Petzke said.
He regrets not learning earlier about a clubhouse members call “Madison’s best kept secret” — like a fancy restaurant on a hidden street.
Joining requires little more than having a mental illness and not being a harm to yourself or others. But it can take members up to four months to properly enroll with the county in the right Medicaid program, and a few don’t qualify, Schlough said.
When members aren’t enrolled? Yahara House eats the cost.
“There are too many wrong doors in this system, and we want to be a right door,” Schlough said.
The clubhouse has few funds for non-reimbursed services, particularly after Dane County cut part of that budget this year, Schlough said. Proposals for the state to allocate a $50,000 matching grant to each Wisconsin clubhouse failed in consecutive legislative sessions.
The Wisconsin Mental Health Action Partnership wants state lawmakers to appropriate those funds, streamline Medicaid reporting requirements and adopt a clubhouse-specific Medicaid waiver.
The possibility of federal Medicaid cuts could only harm that cause, leaving Wisconsin with fewer dollars to spread around, Diehl said.
Investing in clubhouses could save governments money over time, experts say. Compared to others living with severe mental illness, clubhouse members are less likely to be incarcerated, more likely to pay taxes and less likely to take costly trips to the emergency room.
Jennifer Wunrow left Yahara House for a decade following more than 10 years as a member. During her years away she felt herself “going down” and slipping toward a crisis.
“I need to go back to my house,” Wunrow recalled thinking.
Members greeted Wunrow upon her return, asking where she’d been.
When she secured her own two-bedroom apartment with Yahara House help, members and staff helped her move.
A year later, Wunrow calls herself “the biggest mouth in the house” and helps situate new members.
“I take a lot of pride in this house,” she said. “I love it here.”
Madison – Chrysalis Clubhouse, 608-256-3102, and Yahara House, 608-280-4700
Milwaukee – Grand Avenue Club, 414-276-6474
Manitowoc – Painting Pathways Clubhouse, 920-652-9952
Racine – Racine Friendship Clubhouse, 262-636-9393
Waukesha – Spring City Corner Clubhouse, 262-549-6460
Wausau – Granite House, 715-971-4089
‘Madison’s best kept secret’: People living with mental illness find work, care and community at a clubhouse built for them is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
Yahara House is a community mental health program focused on building relationships and job opportunities. The clubhouse model reduces hospitalizations and boosts employment in adults with serious mental illnesses, experts and advocates say.
The post ‘Madison’s best kept secret’: People living with mental illness find work, care and community at a clubhouse built for them appeared first on WPR.
The man in charge of overseeing facilities amid the lead crisis at Milwaukee Public Schools is being reprimanded by the state for misrepresenting himself after he didn't renew his architect license.
The post MPS director overseeing facilities during lead crisis has been reprimanded by the state appeared first on WPR.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and Gov. Tony Evers announced the state is among a group of Democratic attorneys general and governors from 23 states that is suing the Trump administration for abruptly cutting off about $11 billion in public health funding.
The post Wisconsin joins states suing to block termination of $11B in health funding appeared first on WPR.
A helpline Wisconsinites can call for support with their mental health or substance use will stop Saturday, April 5. It’s one of many services affected by recent federal cuts to over $210 million in health funds across the state, officials said.
The post Wisconsin helpline will shut down, citing federal health grant cuts appeared first on WPR.
For more than a decade Brooke Slavens has led the Mobility Lab, a research hub integrating multiple disciplines with the goal of engineering a manual wheelchair that reduces stress on the body. Now, her focus is on children.
The post Milwaukee research lab aims to improve wheelchair experience appeared first on WPR.
The state’s health care system needs to change to meet a growing need for care, the Wisconsin Hospital Association said in an annual workforce report.
The post Wisconsin needs more health care workers as baby boomers age appeared first on WPR.
Three schools in Milwaukee are still temporarily closed two weeks after it was announced that “significant lead hazards” were found inside the buildings.
The post 3 MPS schools still temporarily closed while lead remediation work is underway appeared first on WPR.
Dr. Zorba Paster is very clear on the importance of having a power of attorney: "Everyone, and I mean everyone, should have an advance directive."
The post Zorba Paster: You’re not too young to set power of attorney appeared first on WPR.
ABC for Health, a public interest law firm, argues that a Dane County health assessment should have addressed the problem of medical debt. (Getty Images)
ABC for Health, the public interest law firm, has filed a complaint with the IRS, charging a team of hospitals led by UW Health of falling short of federal standards when they filed a Community Health Needs Assessment required of health nonprofits under federal law.
Late last year, the hospitals released their report on the health needs of Dane County.
Federal law requires nonprofit health care providers to file such a document every three years. The December report covered reproductive care, chronic illness, mental health and substance abuse, along with special sections about health concerns for children and youth as well as the elderly.
But in 63 pages, the report included no discussion of how the cost of care and medical debt have burdened people without money and hampered their access to the health care system.
For Bobby Peterson, that was a glaring omission — and on Thursday, Peterson and ABC for Health, the firm he founded and directs, filed a complaint with the IRS, charging the report doesn’t live up to the federal law’s requirement for a Community Health Heeds Assessment (CHNA).
ABC for Health focuses on health care access along with helping people overcome or avoid medical debt.
The organization’s complaint argues that failing to address that issue in the Dane County health needs document violates the collective responsibility of UW Health and the other three nonprofit hospital systems that produced it.
“Their insistence to exclude medical debt from consideration during the CHNA betrays many principles and requirements of non-profit hospitals,” the complaint states. “We maintain that UW Health’s intentional indifference towards the medical debt epidemic stems from a value for their own revenue at the expense of their community. That value is at odds with UW Health’s duty towards its community.”
Sara Benzel, media relations manager for UW Health, defended the report Thursday as well as the hospital system’s handling of medical debt.
“UW Health stands behind the priorities identified in the community health needs assessment process,” Benzel told the Wisconsin Examiner in an email message.
“Regarding the UW Health Financial Assistance Policy, we are proud of the work we do every day to make this support accessible, and the work we have done to simplify the process and lower barriers to accessing financial support.”
She said the hospital system’s financial assistance program is posted online in English and Spanish.
“The application has been simplified over the years using an equity lens, requires minimal supporting documents, and goes up to 600% of the federal poverty level, well above others in the state,” Benzel said.
ABC for Health has been a longstanding critic of hospitals’ handling of medical debt and has published several reports finding fault with how hospital systems address the problem of patients unable to pay their health care bills.
While hospitals have programs for financial help when a patient has no insurance and can’t afford to pay out of pocket, ABC has argued those programs are too often needlessly complex. The organization also contends that hospitals’ financial counselors don’t take actions that could circumvent a problem — such as helping patients enroll in Medicaid if they qualify.
The requirement for a Community Health Heeds Assessment is a little-noticed provision in the 2010 Affordable Care Act — the legislation nicknamed Obamacare that has helped drive down the numbers of uninsured Americans since its passage 15 years ago. Nonprofit health care systems must produce a CHNA report for their communities every three years.
“The IRS is regulating this because they are looking at their tax-exempt status,” Peterson said Thursday. “And to be a tax-exempt organization, to be able to step away from all the property tax requirements that many of us face, they have a responsibility then to give back.”
He sees a hospital’s approach to medical debt as a direct measure of how they give back.
“They have a community benefit that they need to provide, and part of that benefit is making sure that they’re providing enough charity care and services to the vulnerable in a community,” Peterson said.
The 2025-2027 CHNA report, like several previous editions, was the work of Healthy Dane Collaborative, a coalition of the county’s four hospital systems: Unity Point-Meriter, SSM Health-St. Mary’s Hospital, Stoughton Health and UW Health. The report’s drafters conducted a survey, collected and analyzed data, met with a variety of community organizations and held focus groups
The final report included discussions of health care disparities by race, income and gender. It called attention to the health care needs of the LGBTQ and immigrant communities, including undocumented migrants.
Early on, the text of the report emphasized concern for health equity — “ensuring fair distribution of health resources, outcomes, and opportunities across different communities.”
At an ABC for Health symposium Thursday on Medicaid and health care access, Peterson said the report’s priorities were “good things” and were all important.
“But what we wanted to see was access to health care coverage,” Peterson said, along with a discussion about improving financial assistance policies and better coordination among providers. “It wasn’t there. That’s not part of what they wanted to give out to the community.”
Peterson said ABC started reaching out more than a year and a half ago to offer input for the CHNA report.
“We wanted to make sure that the people that are in the planning process understand what the access to health care coverage needs are, what the barriers in the financial assistance process are, and how can we make it better. What can we do to improve that process?” Peterson said.
“We thought this is a real opportunity for us to make sure that all these issues that we see every day can be put up in this Community Health Needs Assessment process,” he added. “We wanted our voice and the voice of our clients to be heard.”
The IRS complaint includes email messages ABC Health sent various people about the assessment process starting in mid-2023.
In a message Aug. 13, 2024, Peterson told Adrian Jones, UW Health Director of Community Health Improvement, “ABC remains eager to engage in Dane County’s 2024 CHNA process.”
The message asked for updates on the CHNA “process and timeline” and mentioned that ABC for Health was “preparing a report with recommendations to provide input, from the perspective of our clients, to inform Dane County’s CHNA process.”
In her Aug. 14 reply, Jones invited Peterson to “share your report with us.” She wrote that “we have also held our own community input sessions and survey and have analyzed a lot of quantitative and qualitative data.”
Peterson followed up with an email Aug. 16 that included a half-dozen questions about the data being collected, when and where community meetings had been conducted, whether more community meetings were planned and the timeline for completing the assessment document.
“ABC for Health is eager to continue engagement with the Dane County CHNA process,” Peterson wrote. “Please keep us posted about future community input sessions and meetings.”
There was no further response, and “the Dane County hospitals quietly released the CHNA report in late 2024, without ABC’s input that we maintain failed to take into account the perspective of the many communities we represent,” the complaint to the IRS states.
“Unsurprisingly, this report ignored access to health care coverage issues. The report lacks any recommendations to improve financial assistance policies, practices, and processes to equitably serve populations negatively affected by health disparities. It fails to address the impact of medical debt on Dane County patients,” the complaint states.
“It lacks broad community input and instead reflects a hospital-driven marketing piece that ignores and sidesteps Affordable Care Act requirements. ABC was largely shunned despite our multiple efforts over the past 2 years to provide client-based input.”
ABC for Health released its report shortly after Peterson learned that the CNHA report was published. Its critique was unsparing.
“Dane County hospitals must do more to justify extensive tax breaks and better serve patients impacted by health disparities,” the report states. “In 2023, Dane County hospitals spent an average of only 0.7% of their gross patient revenues on charity care. The national average is 2.3%.”
ABC for Health bases its calculations for Dane County charity care on Wisconsin Hospital Association data, and the national average on a 2022 Wall Street Journal report.
Peterson sent a letter reiterating ABC for Health’s concerns and the organization’s complaint about its lack of input in the CNHA report to UW Health’s CEO, Alan Kaplan, in January. He said there was no response.
ABC for Health also invited Kaplan and other hospital leaders to the ABC for Health event Thursday. The invitations were ignored or declined, Peterson said.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Stroud held a town hall in Superior this week, discussing among other issues a dearth of health care services in the district. Before the town hall, she joined WPR’s Robin Washington on “Morning Edition” to talk about those concerns.
The post First-term state representative urges Wisconsin to match Minnesota’s medical reimbursement rates appeared first on WPR.
Congress provided billions of dollars to help communities remove lead pipes under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. The funding will help water systems pay for those projects. Almost all of them can apply for forgivable loans. But Superior’s water utility is barred from doing so.
The post Superior has the state’s only private water utility. It’s making it harder to replace lead pipes. appeared first on WPR.
Scientists at UW–Madison said they are struggling to advance study of a potential new epilepsy treatment after the Trump administration's pause on grant review meetings by the National Institutes of Health.
The post Wisconsin epilepsy research stalls without federal funds appeared first on WPR.
"MPS allowed children back into the work areas at Fernwood to attend class on March 11, 2025, while paint chip dust and debris from the previous night’s work was present," the letter states.
The post MPS let kids into lead-contaminated classrooms, state says appeared first on WPR.
Vivent Health conducts tests for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Federal funds that cover the cost of those tests and other HIV prevention services are being considered for drastic reductions. (Photo courtesy of Vivent Health)
Wisconsin stands to lose at least $1.2 million a year to help prevent the spread of HIV if the federal government follows through on reported plans to drastically cut HIV prevention.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the administration of President Donald Trump was planning sharp reductions at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Division of HIV Prevention housed there.
The U.S. spends about $1.3 billion annually on HIV prevention. That includes just over $1.2 million that goes to the Wisconsin division of Vivent Health, a multistate nonprofit specializing in care for people who have HIV or are at risk of being infected.
Vivent Health’s federal HIV prevention grant comes through the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. A department spokesperson said the agency could not provide the total it receives each year in federal HIV prevention funds by the end of the day Thursday.
At Vivent, the money has helped reach tens of thousands of people across the state to help them avoid infection with the human immunodeficiency virus, said Bill Keeton, Vivent’s vice president and chief advocacy officer.
The funds are used for outreach to people who are vulnerable for HIV, he said. They cover the costs of testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. They also cover services to help people who are candidates for medication that can prevent HIV infection as well as medication after being exposed to the virus.
“We do thousands of tests a year throughout the state,” said Keeton. Vivent has 10 clinics around in Wisconsin and additional mobile clinics for outreach to people who use drugs. Drug use can heighten the risk of transmitting HIV, he said.
In addition, HIV prevention funds cover condom distribution and other methods of harm reduction, Keeton said, along with education to help people learn how to use condoms properly and other ways to protect themselves from HIV infection.
“These are services and programs that are designed to reach out and provide education, testing and resources designed to prevent HIV from occurring,” Keeton said. “These dollars that we get from the federal government comprise the lion’s share of the resources we get to do this work.”
In 2024, Vivent in Wisconsin provided 2,200 HIV tests, about half that number for Hepatitis C and nearly 1,900 for other primary sexually transmitted infections. The organization distributed 300,000 condoms and 2.7 million clean syringes for drug users.
American taxpayers and health care consumers will bear the brunt of these shortsighted policy changes.
– Bill Keeton, vice president and chief advocacy officer at Vivent Health
Vivent assisted 369 people with navigating the decision to use pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, daily medication to ward off the HIV virus in a person who is not already infected. Vivent has 678 patients in Wisconsin using PrEP.
The CDC has reported HIV infections have fallen by 12% nationally, from 36,300 in 2018 to 31,800 in 2022. Cutting off prevention funds could reverse that trend, Keeton said, and would be a setback to efforts to end HIV — an objective that has been embraced by the last three presidential administrations, including Trump’s in his first term.
“New diagnoses will increase,” Keeton said. “New transmissions will occur — unfortunately, that means people will take on $500,000 in lifetime health care costs managing their HIV.”
People will get sick, deaths will increase along with the difficulty of managing chronic illness that would otherwise be avoidable, he said, along with increasing health costs.
“American taxpayers and health care consumers will bear the brunt of these shortsighted policy changes,” Keeton said.
With continued support, however, those outcomes can be avoided. “We have the tools, we have the science, we have the interventions that can work to end HIV,” he said. “What we lack is the resources.”
Keeton told the Wisconsin Examiner that Vivent and other providers of HIV-related care started getting word earlier this week that the HIV prevention division was “getting a lot of attention” in the White House.
He acknowledged that replacing the federal money would be a challenge given the $1 billion price tag it would carry nationally. Other organizations involved in HIV health care and advocacy are looking at mounting a court challenge if the Trump administration follows through on the proposal to cut the prevention programs.
For now, however, Vivent’s focus is on heading off the potential cuts. Keeton said the organization is advocating with members of Congress and encouraging them to “weigh in with the administration” to keep prevention programs funded.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
New research suggests avian flu could be a threat to specialty producers that rely on aging instead of heat to create unique cheeses.
The post Study: Some raw milk cheese is vulnerable to avian flu appeared first on WPR.
Little Chute High School in Outagamie County and Mound View Elementary in Dunn County received the inaugural Program of Excellence Award. The state award recognizes school counseling programs using data-driven solutions to meet the needs of students.
The post 2 Wisconsin school counseling programs receive state honor appeared first on WPR.
Login