Wisconsin Senate Bill SB910

Wisconsin 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/27/26
• Refer: 1/27/26
• Failed: 3/23/26

Caption

An Act to amend 165.25 (6) (c), 250.15 (2) (c), 251.04 (8), 251.07 (1) (a), 251.07 (2), 252.04 (9) and 895.46 (5) (b) of the statutes; Relating to: grants to HealthNet of Rock County, Inc.; a reference to generalized public health nursing programs; and updating terminology from “advanced practice nurse prescriber” to “advanced practice registered nurse” (suggested as remedial legislation by the Department of Health Services).

Summary

SB910 is a remedial bill requested by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to update several statutes affected by recent health-profession licensing changes. The bill makes a technical name change for a state grant recipient, replacing “HealthNet of Janesville, Inc.” with “HealthNet of Rock County, Inc.” and keeps the annual $50,000 grant in place. It also corrects a statutory reference from “general public health nursing programs” to “generalized public health nursing programs” so the language matches related provisions elsewhere in the statutes. The bill’s larger policy purpose is to conform older statutory language to Wisconsin’s new advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) licensing framework. It replaces references to “advanced practice nurse prescriber” with “advanced practice registered nurse” in provisions governing local health department services, school or local health department immunization program supervision, and related state-agent and liability protections. The bill also updates cross-references so that APRNs, rather than the former APNP terminology, are covered under the relevant statutes once the new licensure system takes effect.

Impact

SB910 would amend multiple sections of the Wisconsin statutes to align them with 2025 Wisconsin Act 17 and Act 18, which transition the state from advanced practice nurse prescriber (APNP) terminology to advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) terminology. The bill preserves existing legal protections and authority for these practitioners in local public health and immunization settings, while updating the statutory language to reflect the new licensure system effective September 1, 2026. It also makes a narrow funding change by directing the annual DHS grant to HealthNet of Rock County, Inc. instead of HealthNet of Janesville, Inc.

Sentiment

The available context suggests the bill was largely administrative and noncontroversial in nature. It was introduced by the Law Revision Committee as remedial legislation at the request of DHS, and the bill text states that the committee viewed the changes as desirable public policy and mostly minor substantive corrections. There is no recorded committee transcript or vote detail in the provided materials, and the bill ultimately failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1, indicating it did not advance despite its technical character.

Contention

The main substantive issue is not a policy dispute over the health programs themselves, but the statutory transition from APNP to APRN terminology and the timing of those changes. The bill delays conforming references in several statutes until September 1, 2026, to match the effective date of Act 17, while also updating references in Act 18 so the laws remain consistent. Another minor point is the grant recipient name change from HealthNet of Janesville to HealthNet of Rock County, which appears to be a factual update rather than a contested policy choice.