La Crosse County vendors hear contract, training and privacy updates; staff call for specialty providers

Paul Minger, who leads the contract unit at La Crosse County Human Services, opened the vendor meeting and asked providers to give brief introductions and share any program updates. County staff used the meeting to summarize minor contract language changes, highlight state reporting timelines and outline several operational changes affecting CCS and CLTS providers.

The meeting centered on three immediate operational priorities: training and supervision requirements, documentation and SharePoint updates, and client-privacy protections. Shelley Thomas, a CLTS supervisor, announced the county’s annual Mental Health Awareness Walk on Thursday, May 21, with an opening ceremony around noon, a short walk about 12:15–12:45 p.m., and a resource fair in the Health and Human Services basement from about 1:00–2:30 p.m.; she said she would post the flyer in the meeting chat with contact details for vendors who want booths.

County supervisors also reminded providers about a DHS waiver renewal process under way for 2027 and said the state has sought vendor and family feedback as it considers service-description changes. “If you are one of those, we’ve probably already talked to you,” Thomas said, and vendors were told to expect state notifications (GovDelivery) on any rate or waiver changes.

Heather Lind, a CCS supervisor, reviewed training-log rules and meeting schedules. She told providers that ethics and boundaries trainings must be live, in-person or otherwise interactive to meet county requirements and that agencies must submit proof of trainings with logs so audits can validate staff credentials. Lind said mentor coaching will no longer be accepted as a training-log method beginning April 1 and described the regular RIC/Rick MHP meeting cadence (second Thursday—training topic; fourth Thursday—clinical supervision follow-up).

On supervision and billing, Ryan Ross explained how the county reconciles supervision hours when staff provide group services. He said the program uses billing reports to estimate supervision needs and that the statute governing CCS supervision requires one hour of clinical supervision per 30 hours of service for non‑licensed staff; agencies should report the number of CCS hours their staff actually work so the county can adjust supervision calculations.

Staff also flagged several administrative actions: orientation logs, the rehab worker log and updated clinical‑supervision expectation documents will be posted to the county SharePoint by the end of the week; the consumer handbook will be the required reference going forward (replacing the provider handbook in posted guidance); and staff will send an email notice when documents are live. Vendors were advised that new templates and guidance should be usable “by the beginning of next week.”

County supervisors emphasized confidentiality safeguards. Lind said coordination‑committee meetings seek community input but noted the meetings sometimes lack quorum; she also repeated a standing restriction that AI notetaking bots are not allowed in client/team meetings for confidentiality reasons. Staff urged vendors to avoid sending client‑sensitive information from personal email accounts and to use encryption when exchanging protected data.

Finally, staff asked vendors to identify specialty expertise that the county currently needs (examples mentioned: eating‑disorders care, obsessive‑compulsive disorder supports, nutrition linked to mental‑health recovery, brain‑spotting approaches and social‑pragmatic communication supports) so the county can add those providers to a resource list for staff referrals. The meeting closed with reminders that the next all‑vendor meetings are scheduled for July 7 (10:00 a.m.) and Nov. 17 and that the contract unit will continue to field questions by email.

The meeting included no formal motions or votes; staff said they will follow up by posting documents and distributing email notices once updates appear on SharePoint.