Here & Now

How DSPS Is Catching Up With Wisconsin's Licensing Backlog

Frederica Freyberg:

Next week, Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee will take up budget plans for the Department of Safety and Professional Services, the agency that garnered headlines during COVID for long delays in issuing professional licenses to workers. Revenue for DSPS comes entirely from the fees paid for services, but in the past, Republicans have siphoned off some of those dollars into the state’s historic surplus, and Democratic Governor Tony Evers has requested the agency be allowed to keep all of their fee revenue and use it to hire additional workers to speed up the process, an extra $12 million to hire 80 employees, nearly half of which would be hired for the call center to process credentials. “Here & Now” senior political reporter Zac Schultz has the story.

Dan Hereth:

Hi, Dan Hereth.

Zac Schultz:

Dan Hereth would like his state agency to be a little less visible and he thinks the way to do that is to show up more often.

Man:

Let’s just start off with some introductions.

Dan Hereth:

We’ve been doing round tables all over the state. I think we’ve done nearly a dozen of them.

Zac Schultz:

He is the secretary-designee of the Department of Safety and Professional Services, or DSPS pending on who you’re talking to. For the first 10 years of its existence, the only people who thought about DSPS were the workers that needed to send in their credentials to become professionally licensed in Wisconsin. Everyone from accountants to welders, with nurses, barbers and doctors in between.

Dan Hereth:

If you didn’t have to engage with DSPS, you didn’t know who we were. Well, that’s how we like it.

Zac Schultz:

But in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the faults in the old licensing process and sent chaos into places like the healthcare industry, where nearly half of all workers need some sort of professional license.

Jennifer Waters-Plemon:

We were experiencing delays about a year ago that were at least taking six months to 12 months before they were obtaining their Wisconsin license.

Zac Schultz:

Jennifer Waters-Plemon works for Marshfield Clinic in Beaver Dam. She’s the assistant manager of recruitment for advanced practice clinicians. So she felt it when trying to get new hires licensed during a pandemic.

Jennifer Waters-Plemon:

With COVID, we had more people coming in here that we needed them to have a license yesterday, so I think that definitely impacted why it took a longer process for a Wisconsin license.

Zac Schultz:

With new state employees trying to work remotely, an influx of new license requests and an outdated system that relied on fax machines and paper copies, it’s no surprise there was a surge in stories about the delays.

News reporter:

Frustration at its boiling point.

Woman in news story:

I called the DSPS at least once a week. I would be on hold for an hour or longer.

News reporter:

For Thomas, she finally got her license in November, six months after applying.

Randy Griswold:

It was killing some of these radiology departments.

Zac Schultz:

Randy Griswold serves on a committee for the Wisconsin Society of Radiologic Technologists. He says most new radiologic technicians graduate in May and used to be able to get their state license shortly after passing a national exam.

Randy Griswold:

Instead of turning it around in 15 to 25 days, some of these graduates were waiting upwards of 90 to 120 days upon graduation.

Zac Schultz:

The issue became political with Republicans blaming Governor Tony Evers for not sending state employees back to the office, and Democrats blaming Republicans for understaffing the agency.

Devin LeMahieu:

The governor needs to fix that agency. It’s just unacceptable, the amount of time people are waiting for licenses.

Tony Evers:

Unfortunately, we have been kind of hamstrung by legislation in the past where it didn’t allow to us hire more people.

Randy Griswold:

I’m speaking for radiology, but I think I can speak for anybody else.

Zac Schultz:

Randy Griswold attended a budget listening session last December where the governor and his staff were on hand to take notes.

Randy Griswold:

But the licensing process here in Wisconsin has simply confounded us and complicated the issue. So if you can get that message to the legislature. I noticed that the Governor is sitting there listening.

Zac Schultz:

By that point, Evers had already changed leadership at DSPS, appointing Dan Hereth to speed up the process.

Dan Hereth:

Technology has been a big part of our story and a big part of our success.

Zac Schultz:

DSPS introduced a new web platform and Hereth says round tables like the one held at Beaver Dam Marshfield Clinic have led to changes in the system.

Dan Hereth:

There have been really interesting instances where, within a matter of weeks, we’ve been able to take ideas and either augment existing solutions or create new solutions.

Zac Schultz:

Jennifer Waters-Plemon says the new system allows employers and applicants to monitor the licensing process because in the old system, a lot of delays were caused by missing paperwork.

Jennifer Waters-Plemon:

Providers would tell us that they have submitted everything and we couldn’t check to verify if they have or have not submitted that so now having that transparency where we’re able to see that was something that was really important to us to verify that they should be receiving their license more timely.

Zac Schultz:

Randy Griswold says he’s heard of improvements in his industry as well.

Randy Griswold:

The turnaround time, which used to be running into 90 days, is now back to just under 30 days now. So things have gotten better.

Zac Schultz:

But that’s not the end of the story for DSPS. Changes in the workforce from baby boomers retiring and an increase in the number of traveling nurses and technicians means they will always be tested on turnaround time.

Randy Griswold:

The certification process in Wisconsin, the licensing process in Wisconsin needs to understand the dramatic change in the labor force that’s coming into it right now and in the future.

Dan Hereth:

We’re issuing more licenses more quickly than at any point in the last seven years of our agency and maybe beyond but that’s as far back as my data goes, but that’s not good enough. That’s not how Wisconsin wins the battle for workers throughout the country and, quite frankly, in the global economy.

Zac Schultz:

Reporting from Beaver Dam, I’m Zac Schultz for “Here & Now.”