JFC leaders plan to cut healthcare professional board changes from budget

The leaders of the Joint Finance Committee have decided to pull a provision of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget that would eliminate and consolidate boards overseeing healthcare professions and introduce it as separate legislation.

In a letter sent to committee members last week, Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, identified 83 non-fiscal policy items that they think shouldn’t be included in Walker’s 2017-19 budget.

Instead, the lawmakers wrote that other standing committees should address the items, which will be drafted and introduced as bills.

Those items include a proposal that would have eliminated the Optometry Examining Board, Podiatry Affiliated Credentialing Board and the Radiography Examining Board. The Medical Examining Board would have taken over the boards’ rules and functions.

The proposal would have also consolidated advisory councils at the Department of Safety and Professional Services that oversee physician assistants, anesthesiologist assistants and others. And it would have created a Medical Therapy Examining Board, a consolidation of boards that regulate physical therapists, occupational therapists and others.

Walker’s administration said the proposal would make government more efficient. Kirsten Reader, assistant deputy secretary at DSPS, said in response to the letter that they look “forward to working with the Legislature once the proposal is drafted.”

Organizations representing radiologists, optometrists and podiatrists were concerned that turning regulatory control over to a different profession would have an impact on public safety.

Peter Theo, executive vice president of the Wisconsin Optometric Association, said they supported the decision to cut the provision, which “was one of the biggest threats to optometry in the last few decades.”

But he hoped that the proposal won’t resurface as separate legislation. “Our members will vigorously fight that action,” he said.

Amanda Soelle, Wisconsin Podiatric Medical Association executive director, said they support removing the provision from the budget as the Podiatry Affiliated Credentialing Board’s members have the experience and training to regulate the profession.

“We will continue to monitor this issue, and our membership will again be ready to respond when and if the issue resurfaces,” she said.