Human Services Board

Human Services Board Minutes December 12, 2022 (110 KB)

SAUK COUNTY BOARD OF HUMAN SERVICES

Meeting:                December 12, 2022, 4 p.m., County Board Room 326A, West Square Building, Baraboo, WI

Chair, Patricia Rego called the meeting to order and certified compliance with the Open Meeting Law at 4 p.m.

PRESENT:  Patricia Rego, James Bowers, Joan Fordham, Cliff Thompson, Joel Chrisler, Valerie McAuliffe, Delmar Scanlon, Jake Roxen; EXCUSED:  None; ABSENT:  None.

Others Present:  Jessica Mijal, Stephanie Box, Jeana Neumaier, Lori Dee

Motion by James Bowers, seconded by Valerie McAuliffe, to adopt agenda.  Motion carried.

Motion by Valerie McAuliffe, seconded by Cliff Thompson, to approve the minutes for the previous Human Services Board meeting held on November 14, 2022.  Motion carried.

Public Comment:

None

Communications/Director’s Report:

a. Board Materials:  Distributed electronically.  Jessica Mijal discussed the Classification and Compensation study.  Staff have completed the first round of reviews and now will be revised by supervisors and are due the Thursday before Christmas.  Jessica attended the WCHSA fall conference and will share documentation when it’s available.  On the opioid settlement, no decisions have been made; meeting with Public Health discussing options.  The settlement money will come in over a number of years.

b. 2022 Year-End Unfavorable Balance:  Jessica Mijal indicated meeting with the Finance Committee last week.  A placement ended sooner than expected which reduced the unfavorable balance.  Jessica indicated the Finance Committee had some great questions.

Jake Roxen arrived at 4:05 p.m.

Business Items:

a. Discussion and Action to Approve Monthly Vouchers:  Distributed electronically.  Stephanie Box reviewed the Monthly Voucher Report.  Motion by Joel Chrisler, seconded by Valerie McAuliffe, to approve monthly vouchers for $2,181,183.26.  Motion carried.  

b. Accounts Receivable Report:  Distributed electronically.  Stephanie Box reviewed the Accounts Receivable Report for October 2022.  Reduction in receivable balance as we continue to bill for Comprehensive Community Services (CCS) until April next year for 2022.  Stephanie indicated we made the change to send certain accounts to State Debt Collection and certain accounts to Credit Management.  Credit Management stepped up and we have seen more in collections than in past years.  We are still doing tax intercept, but State Debt Collection will be taking on any new debt and maybe we will see more revenue in 2023.  Stephanie reported receiving notification that Credit Management is merging with another collection company.

c. Discussion and Action to Approve Collection Requests:  Motion by Joan Fordham, seconded by James Bowers, to approve collection requests of sending 9 accounts for $1012.89 to Credit Management Control and 13 accounts for $4,284.58 to State Debt Collections.  Motion carried.

d. Monthly Reports:  Distributed electronically.  Stephanie Box discussed the October 2022 Volatile Line report.  Stephanie reported looking unfavorable, around $700,000.  Hoping to bring that down.  Will be generating more revenue in 2023 from crisis billing.  Stephanie indicated more of an impact in 2024.  The State has been encouraged to increase reimbursements which have remained the same for many years.

e. Discussion and Action to Approve 2023 State County Child Welfare Contract:  The contract includes funding for Kinship, Safe and Stable Families, basic County allocation on the Department of Children and Families (DCF) side, Youth Aids funding.  Motion by Valerie McAuliffe, seconded by Delmar Scanlon, to approve 2023 State County Child Welfare Contract for $1,969,205.  Motion carried.

Department Updates: 

a. Presentation:  Economic Support (ES) Program, Jeana Neumaier, ES Supervisor:  Board members introduced themselves to Jeana Neumaier.  Jeana discussed the programs Economic Support administers including FoodShare, BadgerCare/Medicaid, Family Planning Services, Elderly Blind or Disabled Medical Assistance, Caretaker Supplement, Child Care Assistance, and Emergency Health Care.  ES programs are fully Federal and State funded and State mandated.  Sauk County is a member of the Capital Consortium which consists of eight counties including:  Adams, Columbia, Juneau, Dodge, Richland, Sheboygan, and Dane.  The consortium operates a shared call center and shares some workload across the counties.  In 2021, Sauk County answered 16,437 calls; as of September 2022, 14,010 calls were answered.  When not answering the call center, workers have an average of 878 cases to manage.  The State requires performance standards for answering calls, customer service, and case processing time for applications, renewals, and incoming documents.  The Elderly, Blind, and Disabled (EBD) programs for 65 or older or deemed disabled include nursing home payment assistance, waiver programs to assist consumers to remain home, Medicare premium assistance, Medicaid Purchase Plan, and Medicaid.  ES and the Aging and Disability Resource Center work together to help keep consumers in their home as long as possible. 

Jeana discussed the Federal health care emergency due to COVID-19 pandemic requiring Medicaid programs to keep people continuously enrolled through the end of the month in which the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) ends.  This is evaluated every 90 days and the Federal government will provide states with a 60-day notice of it ending.  Once the PHE ends, it is anticipated there will be an additional 12,000 health care renewals needing to be completed per month.  Currently households are automatically receiving maximum monthly FoodShare allotments.  Once the PHE ends, many households will see a significant decrease in FoodShare benefits.  Currently 40 states are continuing to participate in the Federal FoodShare maximum monthly allotment.  A mass mailing will go out to notify consumers when the PHE ends.

Next Meeting: 

The next meeting of the Sauk County Human Services Board will be January 9, 2023, at 4 p.m. in the County Board Room 326A.  Joan Fordham and Joel Chrisler will be absent.

Motion by James Bowers, seconded by Valerie McAuliffe, to adjourn at 4:45 p.m.  Motion carried.