News of the Day

Wisconsin ranked 10th in the nation for the safety of its hospitals, with 42 percent of the state’s hospitals receiving “A” grades for their prevention of medical errors, according to a new report.

The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit organization focused on health care quality and safety, gives out grades to hospitals twice a year for how well they prevent errors, accidents, injuries and infections.

Of the approximately 2,500 hospitals graded nationally, 30 percent earned an “A,” 28 percent earned a “B,” 35 percent a “C,” six percent a “D” and one percent an “F.”

Hawaii was first in the U.S. for its hospital safety, followed by Idaho (2); Rhode Island (3); Massachusetts (4); Virginia (5); Colorado (6); Maine (7); Ohio (8); and North Carolina (9).

Leapfrog uses performance measures from its own hospital survey, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey and Health Information Technology Supplement to compile its rankings.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday limited areas of Wisconsin that will face tougher smog regulations.

The agency sided with Wisconsin officials by sharply narrowing areas that will come under stricter federal ozone regulations to small strips of land along the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

Businesses and Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s administration argued that metropolitan Milwaukee and areas along Lake Michigan were being polluted by smog from Illinois and northern Indiana.

The EPA was under a court-ordered deadline of Monday to decide which counties across the country were in violation of the new standard and would need to reduce pollutants that form ozone. Those pollutants come from sources such as factories, power plants and emissions from cars and trucks.

Ozone is created when heat and light interact with nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.

In a tweet Tuesday, Walker said that Wisconsin already has cut emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds by 50 percent since 2002.

“We are working with the EPA to implement a plan that continues to look out for the best interest of Wisconsin,” Walker tweeted. “We continue to search for ways to balance between environmental stewardship and a positive, pro-jobs business environment.”

In December, the agency had made an initial determination that a much larger area of southeastern Wisconsin was in violation of ozone standards. Officials with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources pushed back against that initial determination. Officials asked that the entire state be declared in compliance or, failing that, urged the EPA to designate narrow strips of land near Lake Michigan.

“We are pleased that EPA did take into account the science and data the DNR provided showing that ozone concentrations … are limited to a narrow strip of land near the Lake Michigan lake shore,” DNR spokesman Jim Dick said in a statement.

Wisconsin’s investor-owned utility companies must give a total of $130 million to their customers in the form of credits on their July bills followed by monthly reductions, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission has ruled in a preliminary decision.

The proposed July bill credit represents the first six months of tax savings the utilities will have amassed since Congress passed major changes to the tax code in late 2017, lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

“Every customer of an investor-owned utility (in Wisconsin) will receive some sort of bill credit,” said PSC spokesman Matthew Spencer.

Specific amounts were not provided as part of the PSC’s oral decision last Thursday so it is not clear yet how big each customer’s credit will be. The amounts are expected to be included in the three-member panel’s written decision when it is released in a few weeks.

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion yesterday seeking a preliminary injunction against the federal government’s Affordable Care Act. Attorneys General Schimel and Paxton are leading a 20-state coalition in this effort to undo the harmful effects of Obamacare.

“Obamacare’s irrational design wreaks havoc on health insurance markets,” said Attorney General Schimel. “Obamacare causes premiums to rise and coverage to fall, forcing Wisconsin and other states to take extreme, costly measures to protect their citizens’ health and pocketbooks. I bring this challenge to Obamacare because, as Wisconsin’s attorney general, I swore to uphold the rule of law and protect our state from overreaching and harmful actions from the federal government.”

In February, the same 20-state coalition filed a lawsuit that argues the ACA, as recently amended, forces an unconstitutional and irrational regime onto the states and their citizens. In NFIB v. Sebelius, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly upheld the core provision of the ACA—the individual mandate—as a “tax.” However, Congress has recently repealed this tax, while leaving the mandate in place. Since the Supreme Court has already held that Congress has no authority to impose such a mandate on Americans, absent invoking its taxing authority, the ACA is now unconstitutional.

In the motion for a preliminary injunction that was filed today, Attorney General Schimel told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that an injunction against Obamacare is necessary to spare the people of Wisconsin and the other states from the enormous financial burden caused by the individual mandate. Before Obamacare, “the states allowed individuals to determine whether to buy health insurance, established high-risk insurance pools to help individuals in ill-health, enabled cost-sharing, and instituted many other policies that Obamacare now preempts or functionally preempts,” the coalition wrote.

Wisconsin and Texas filed the coalition’s complaint in a federal district court in Texas. Other states participating are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.

A Foxconn executive says that groundbreaking for the company’s new factory in Racine County is taking place soon, and that nearly all the construction companies chosen to build the first phase of the complex are based in Wisconsin.

Foxconn special assistant Louis Woo took part in a business panel in Milwaukee on Wednesday,  prior to a visit by Vice President Mike Pence. Woo said that he has peeked at which construction firms have won work for the facility, and that 90 percent are from Wisconsin.

“Do not tell the folks at Racine County because only 10 percent of the companies are from that county. That means the rest of the 90 percent of the companies are all over the state of Wisconsin,” Woo said.

Woo also said that about 10 percent of the companies are run by women, minorities or veterans. He said the winners will be notified in the next couple of days.

Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson Inc. was already expecting an increase in raw material costs this year, but new tariffs on steel and aluminum announced by President Donald Trump could add another $15 million to $20 million in additional costs, John Olin, Harley chief financial officer said Tuesday.

That’s going to provide quite a headwind for the company,” Olin said.

He cautioned the figure is an estimate based on what prices have done since the tariffs – 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum – were announced in February. Olin added that Harley saw a $4.2 million increase in raw material costs in the first quarter that was not the result of tariffs.

When the tariffs were first announced, Harley warned there could be “significant impact” from retaliatory tariffs and said in a statement the measures would drive up costs. Heavyweight motorcycles like Harley’s were among the products the European Union said could be hit with tariffs if Trump goes through with his plans.

A training exercise meant to simulate a mass power outage will take place next month at sites across Wisconsin.

The exercise, known as Dark Sky, is scheduled to happen May 15-17 in Brown, Calumet, Dane, Fond du Lac, Milwaukee, Outagamie and Winnebago counties. The public should not be concerned by a greater presence of emergency responders, military personnel or drones during the exercise.

The exercise is intended to test the abilities of emergency responders and private utilities to respond to a long-term power outage across the state. The exercise will involve an Alliant Energy facility in Fond du Lac County that will serve as a National Guard training site.

“Our emergency management community must be prepared to deal with the myriad of scenarios and challenges posed by a long-term mass power outage,” said Maj. Gen. Don Dunbar, Wisconsin’s adjutant general. “By training together, we continue building meaningful relationships that leave us better positioned to respond to a real-world situation.”

More than 1,000 people from federal, state, county and municipal agencies will participate in the training exercise.

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) has received a number of recent contacts from Wisconsin consumers about a robocall imposter scam that claims to come from AT&T.

The calls have been spoofed to show AT&T’s actual customer service phone number on recipients’ caller ID displays. The automated message in the calls warns recipients of an issue with their internet service related to a security breach. Call recipients are asked to press a button in order to speak to a representative about the situation.

Regardless of what your caller ID says, these calls are not from AT&T and are not legitimate. If you receive a similar call, hang up immediately and do not press any buttons. If you do press a button to speak with a “representative,” your number will likely be added to a future call list and you may be pressed for money or personal information from a scammer.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your AT&T service, contact the company directly by using the contact information listed on your monthly billing statement.

To read more about imposter scams, review DATCP’s imposter scams fact sheet.

For additional information on consumer protection issues, visit the Consumer Protection Bureau athttp://datcp.wi.gov, send an e-mail to datcphotline@wisconsin.gov or call the Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-422-7128.

Wisconsin’s cap on damages for pain and suffering is being challenged as unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday in a medical malpractice case involving a woman who lost both her arms and legs.

In 2014, Ascaris Mayo was awarded a total of $25.3 million, $16.5 million of which was for non-economic damages, which Wisconsin caps at $750,000. Her attorney Daniel Rottier says the cap violates the state constitution’s equal protection clause because it hurts patients with the worst injuries the most — they are limited in what they can recover, no matter what a jury decides.

Kevin St. John, an attorney for the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund, disagreed. “Now a plaintiffs’ primary argument at the end of the day boils down to fairness. But ‘it’s not fair’ is not a constitutional argument,'” St. John told the state’s high court Thursday.

Proponents of the medical malpractice cap say it helps attract doctors to the state, curbs defensive medicine and protects a fund worth $1.4 billion used to compensate patients.

“The Legislature will always have a rationale for everything it does, that does not means its rational,” Rottier said. “And those reasons have to be examined in a meaningful way.”

Those arguing in favor of the cap told the court it’s “critical” to not only uphold the cap, but to make sure the cap has no exceptions based on an individual case.

“Now judicial second-guessing of the cap-specific level, as (a previous case, Ferdon v. Wisconsin Patients Compensation Fund) authorizes, places courts in the impossible position of making legislative, not judicial, judgments,” argued state Solicitor General Misha Tseytlin.