FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with Dr. Christina Henderson, Reliable Residence; Survey finds child care providers would be impacted by end of program funding

April 11, 2025

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Dr. Christina Henderson, CEO and founder of Madison-based Reliable Residence.

Henderson, a second-year resident physician, saw the need for a trusted platform offering short-term housing for traveling medical professionals and students while completing her own medical schooling in Colorado.

After dealing with a “terrible, terrible housing experience” during her medical rotations, “I realized that there had to be a better way for medical students to find housing for these rotations that we all have to do and are so important to our residency careers,” she said.

The platform matches traveling medical professionals and students with furnished housing on a monthly basis.

“It’s really your all-in-one solution to finding something that is close to the hospital, safe and affordable for you,” she said.

The podcast highlights Henderson’s experience balancing entrepreneurship and a medical career, her vision for the business and the path ahead.

“I don’t get a lot of sleep,” she said with a laugh. “I wake up pretty early as it is, and then I’ll work on the company or whatever needs to get done that morning … and also in the evening, when I get home late at night. This has really taken on a life of its own, but it’s so rewarding.”

Currently, the short-term housing industry focuses on vacations and even travel nurses to some extent, but Henderson says “people have kind of forgotten about medical students.” She noted these students often need housing for a month to six weeks, not as long as most travel nurse contracts, and have more restrictions around transportation and housing costs.

“Those key factors are very important to them, and we help this population, of course in addition to travel nurses, by selecting units in Madison that fit that criteria,” she said. “So we do a really good job of filtering out places that suit them to really save them a lot of time and stress, when they’re already stressed out as it is.”

Listen to the podcast and see the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.

— About a quarter of surveyed child care providers said they’re at least somewhat likely to shut down if funding ends for the Child Care Counts program.

Gov. Tony Evers yesterday announced results from a survey of 812 child care providers in Wisconsin, conducted by the state Department of Children and Families.

The Child Care Counts Stabilization Survey release comes as funding for the program is set to end in June. Evers has proposed $480 million in budget funding to continue the program, according to the release.

“The results of this survey are crystal clear: if we don’t make needed investments to support our child care providers and industry, programs will close, wait lists will get even longer, providers will be forced to raise prices, and parents and loved ones who can’t afford for costs to get any higher may have to leave our workforce,” Evers said in a statement.

While DCF found 25% of respondents are “somewhat, very, or extremely likely” to shut down if funding for the CCC program isn’t extended, another third of respondents said they’re at least somewhat likely to reduce classrooms, capacity or hours.

Meanwhile, two-thirds said it’s at least somewhat likely that they’ll reduce pay for workers and have had greater difficulty hiring new qualified staff. About half said it’s at least somewhat likely they’ll face more challenges with providing “high quality care” as well as services like meals and transportation.

Respondents were also asked about the impact of CCC funding being reduced by half starting in May 2023, with 38% of those that had gotten funding before that saying they were less able to provide competitive pay after the change. And 43% said they were less able to hire new qualified staff after the funding reduction.

Nearly two-thirds of providers said they increased tuition across all age groups when funding was reduced, though the biggest increases were for those taking care of infants. About one-fourth said they were less able to provide high-quality care and one-fifth say they were less able to serve infants, toddlers or children with special needs, and offer other services.

“Most providers who reported these types of changes attributed at least some of the changes directly to reductions in CCC funding,” report authors wrote.

See the release and the full survey results.

— Wisconsinites with disabilities at a public hearing said maintaining access to Medicaid is already hard enough and argued a bill to require eligibility checks every six months would only make the problem worse.

Meanwhile, two Republicans on the Assembly Public Benefit Reform Committee called for language in the bill to make it easier for certain Wisconsinites with disabilities to access Medicaid.

Co-author Rep. William Penterman, R-Hustisford, argued the bill is necessary to ensure only those who are “truly needy and truly qualified” receive benefits.

“This bill strikes a balance, an important balance, in preserving a strong safety net for the most vulnerable residents while curbing inappropriate long-term reliance on public assistance,” Penterman said yesterday. “This bill is a pragmatic and common-sense reform that prioritizes accountability without losing compassion.”

Under current law, the Department of Health Services checks if recipients are still eligible for Medicaid benefits annually. AB 163 would require the agency to ramp that up to every six months and conduct a review by Jan. 1 of the some 1.2 million Wisconsinites on the program to ensure they’re eligible.

Penterman said he planned to introduce an amendment “as soon as possible” to exempt people with developmental disabilities from the requirement in the bill, noting existing barriers they face.

Chad Sobieck, who was in a wheelchair, said he has a physical disability and relies on Medicaid to provide the long-term care services he uses on a daily basis. He raised concerns more bureaucracy could lead to losing care he needs.

“If there is a gap in those services, I will not be able to remain independent, and it will become a safety and health issue for me,” Sobieck said.

See more at WisPolitics.

— U.S. Rep. Tony Weid is promoting federal legislation that would provide more resources to rural providers for obstetrics care.

The Republican lawmaker is co-sponsoring the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Dem U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois. It would create labor and delivery training programs for non-specialists, in hopes of better preparing rural providers for obstetric emergencies, according to Wied’s release.

In a statement on the bill, he notes a decline in dedicated labor and delivery facilities in rural hospitals.

He notes ThedaCare’s Waupaca labor and delivery center recently shut down in the 8th Congressional District he represents.

“Even before this closure, some women in our district faced travel times of over 45 minutes to safely deliver their baby,” he said. “That is why I am proud to co-sponsor this bi-partisan legislation to ensure that women across Northeast Wisconsin have access to the critical services they need.”

The bill would also provide federal grants for rural facilities to buy better equipment needed for obstetrics emergencies, and create a pilot program to connect rural doctors with maternal care experts through teleconsultation.

See the bill text and see more in the release.

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