Emplify Health is among Wisconsin health systems urging the state Senate to ensure legislation aimed at relieving hospital capacity concerns passes before the end of the upcoming legislative session.

According to data from the Wisconsin Hospital Association, one of the most significant reasons hospital emergency departments face patient backlogs is due to delays in other patients being transferred to post-acute care facilities.

“At any given time, hundreds of patients across Wisconsin are unnecessarily waiting in a hospital, many in emergency departments, due to the inability to transfer patients who no longer need our care out of the hospital,” Emplify Health CEO Dr. Scott Rathgaber said in a news release.

“This means patients are not getting the appropriate post-acute care they need, while other patients are forced to wait for necessary acute care.”

The state legislature could immediately help address hospital capacity concerns by passing Assembly Bill 598 through the Senate, making it easier for incapacitated patients to receive appropriate post-acute care.

Many families, including spouses, do not realize that without a pre-established medical power of attorney they are unable to assist their incapacitated loved ones when they need to be transferred from an acute-care hospital to a post-acute care rehab facility.

Assembly Bill 598, often referred to as “next of kin” legislation, would allow for family members, including spouses, to have limited authority to make necessary patient care decisions without waiting weeks or months, and spending thousands of dollars, for a court to determine guardianship.

“Very few pieces of legislation have an immediate impact on access to care in a Wisconsin hospital. Passing Assembly Bill 598 is one of those opportunities,” Wisconsin Hospital Association President/CEO Kyle O’Brien said in the release. “WHA has been proud to work with both Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature, in addition to Governor (Tony) Evers, to find bipartisan agreement on this legislation — but we still need the Senate to act.”

In the next two weeks, the Wisconsin State Senate is set to have its final floor period before the legislature adjourns. The Assembly passed Assembly Bill 598 with overwhelming bipartisan support in mid-February and Evers has committed to sign the legislation into law, if passed.

In 2025, Emplify Health had approximately 500 days that patients stayed beyond what was medically necessary. The passage of next of kin legislation would greatly reduce that number by providing a better path to post-acute care.

“We ask state senators to ensure this ‘next of kin’ legislation passes the state legislature to relieve hospital capacity concerns in our communities and across the state,” Rathgaber said in the release.

To learn more about this critical legislation, go to WHA’s website at: https://www.wha.org/advocacy/key-issues/n/next-of-kin-legislation.

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Formed in December 2022, Emplify Health is a not-for-profit health care network with headquarters in Green Bay and La Crosse, Wis. Emplify Health has nearly 15,000 employees, including more than 1,000 clinicians, in 11 hospitals and more than 100 clinic locations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Iowa.