Wisconsin
- Grounds stated in the sources
- DHS 132.53(2)(a): "No resident may be discharged or transferred from a facility, except:" — ten circumstances, more than any other state in this index. They are "Upon the request or with the informed consent of the resident or guardian;"; "For nonpayment of charges, following reasonable opportunity to pay any deficiency;"; "If the resident requires care other than that which the facility is licensed to provide;"; "If the resident requires care which the facility does not provide and is not required to provide under this chapter;"; "For medical reasons as ordered by a physician;"; "In case of a medical emergency or disaster;"; "If the health, safety or welfare of the resident or other residents is endangered, as documented in the resident’s clinical record;"; "If the resident does not need nursing home care;"; "If the short-term care period for which the resident was admitted has expired; or"; "As otherwise permitted by law." The rule adds a condition the others do not: except for nonpayment or a medical emergency, "no resident may be involuntarily transferred or discharged unless an alternative placement is arranged for the resident."
- Notice stated in the sources
- DHS 132.53(3)(a): "The facility shall provide a resident, the resident’s physician and, if known, an immediate family member or legal counsel, guardian, relative or other responsible person at least 30 days notice of transfer or discharge under sub. (2) (a) 2. to 10., and the reasons for the transfer or discharge, unless the continued presence of the resident endangers the health, safety or welfare of the resident or other residents." On contents: "The notice shall also contain the name, address and telephone number of the board on aging and long-term care." Wisconsin also requires a meeting before the move: unless danger requires otherwise, "a planning conference shall be held at least 14 days before transfer or discharge", with seven days' notice of the conference itself, and the transfer activities include "Counseling regarding the impending transfer or discharge;" and a visit to the proposed placement.
- Hearing office in these sources
- Two stages, both in the rule. First, the department's bureau of quality assurance: "the resident shall send a letter to the nearest regional office of the department’s bureau of quality assurance within 7 days after receiving a notice of transfer or discharge from the facility, with a copy to the facility administrator, asking for a review of the decision." A timely appeal holds the move — "the resident may not be transferred or discharged from the facility until the department’s bureau of quality assurance has completed its review of the decision and notified both the resident and the facility of its decision." — and the bureau decides "within 14 days after receiving written justification for the transfer or discharge of the resident from the facility." Second, either side "may appeal the decision of the department’s bureau of quality assurance in writing to the department of administration’s division of hearings and appeals within 5 days after receipt of the decision." The rule's own note gives the address: "The mailing address of the Division of Hearings and Appeals is P.O. Box 7875, Madison, Wisconsin 53707." No address for the regional bureau office is stated in the rule; it is what the facility must post.
- Ombudsman in these sources
- The Board on Aging and Long Term Care, an independent state board: "In Wisconsin, the Ombudsman Program has statutory authority to advocate for long-term care consumers aged 60 and over." Its published contact is "1402 Pankratz Street, Suite 111" "Madison, Wisconsin 53704" with "Ombudsman Program/Volunteer Program: 1-800-815-0015" and "Email: BOALTC@Wisconsin.Gov". The rule writes the board into the notice itself, requiring its name, address and telephone number on the face of every transfer or discharge notice.
- Sources last checked
- Sep 18, 2026
Reproduced from the agencies' own pages and documents quoted below — potentially relevant official sources, not a determination that any notice, ground, or deadline applies to any situation.
Lede
This page assembles what Wisconsin's own publishers state about transfer and discharge from a nursing home. The fullest single source is DHS 132.53 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code, which states the grounds, the alternative-placement condition, the thirty-day notice, the planning conference, bed-hold, and a two-stage appeal — all in one rule. Wisconsin's vocabulary is transfer or discharge; the first appeal is a review by the department's bureau of quality assurance, and the second is to the Division of Hearings and Appeals in a different department entirely.
Two things distinguish Wisconsin. Its grounds list runs to ten rather than the federal six, and it is the only state in this index so far to require that an alternative placement be arranged before most involuntary moves, and that a planning conference be held fourteen days beforehand. The federal floor for Medicare/Medicaid-certified facilities is assembled separately on the federal page; nothing here fills a gap from federal law or another state. Confirm applicability with the agencies named in the sources: whether any provision applies to a particular facility, resident, or notice is for the hearing office to determine. Deadlines and periods on this page are quoted from the sources, not calculated for any case.
The grounds, as Wisconsin describes them
DHS 132.53(2)(a), "Prohibition and exceptions" (Wisconsin Administrative Code, DHS 132.53, retrieved 2026-09-18), states that "No resident may be discharged or transferred from a facility, except:", in the rule's own order:
1. "Upon the request or with the informed consent of the resident or guardian;"
2. "For nonpayment of charges, following reasonable opportunity to pay any deficiency;"
3. "If the resident requires care other than that which the facility is licensed to provide;"
4. "If the resident requires care which the facility does not provide and is not required to provide under this chapter;"
5. "For medical reasons as ordered by a physician;"
6. "In case of a medical emergency or disaster;"
7. "If the health, safety or welfare of the resident or other residents is endangered, as documented in the resident’s clinical record;"
8. "If the resident does not need nursing home care;"
9. "If the short-term care period for which the resident was admitted has expired; or"
10. "As otherwise permitted by law."
The rule attaches a further condition to most of these grounds, at DHS 132.53(2)(b)1: "Except for transfers or discharges under par. (a) 2. and 6., for nonpayment or in a medical emergency, no resident may be involuntarily transferred or discharged unless an alternative placement is arranged for the resident. The resident shall be given reasonable advance notice of any planned transfer or discharge and an explanation of the need for and alternatives to the transfer or discharge except when there is a medical emergency. The facility, agency, program or person to which the resident is transferred shall have accepted the resident for transfer in advance of the transfer, except in a medical emergency." A further limit narrows ground 2 (nonpayment) at (2)(b)2: "No resident may be involuntarily transferred or discharged under par. (a) 2. for nonpayment of charges if the resident meets both of the following conditions:" — "He or she is in need of ongoing care and treatment and has not been accepted for ongoing care and treatment by another facility or through community support services; and" "The funding of the resident’s care in the nursing home under s. 49.45 (6m), Stats., is reduced or terminated because either the resident requires a level or type of care which is not provided by the nursing home or the nursing home is found to be an institution for mental diseases as defined under 42 CFR 435.1009." The section's own scope note, (1), states that the rule yields to certain statutes where they conflict: "This section shall apply to all resident transfers and discharges, except that in the event of conflict with s. 49.45 (6c) (c) and (d), 49.498 (4) or 50.03 (5m) or (14), Stats., the relevant statutory requirement shall apply." Those statutes are not captured; this page quotes the rule and records the precedence provision rather than resolving it.
The published process
Requesting the hearing
DHS 132.53(6)(a)1: "A resident may appeal an involuntary transfer or discharge decision." The rule requires the route to be posted, (6)(a)2: "Every facility shall post in a prominent place a notice that a resident has a right to appeal a transfer or discharge decision. The notice shall explain how to appeal that decision and shall contain the address and telephone number of the nearest bureau of quality assurance regional office. The notice shall also contain the name, address and telephone number of the state board on aging and long-term care or, if the resident is developmentally disabled or has a mental illness, the mailing address and telephone number of the protection and advocacy agency designated under s. 51.62 (2) (a), Stats." A copy goes in the resident's file, (6)(a)3: "A copy of the notice of a resident’s right to appeal a transfer or discharge decision shall be placed in each resident’s admission folder." And every transfer notice must carry it, (6)(a)4: "Every notice of transfer or discharge under sub. (3) (a) to a resident, relative, guardian or other responsible party shall include a notice of the resident’s right to appeal that decision."
The procedure runs in two stages. First, (6)(b)1: "If a resident wishes to appeal a transfer or discharge decision, the resident shall send a letter to the nearest regional office of the department’s bureau of quality assurance within 7 days after receiving a notice of transfer or discharge from the facility, with a copy to the facility administrator, asking for a review of the decision." The letter states why, (6)(b)2: "The resident’s written appeal shall indicate why the transfer or discharge should not take place." The facility then has five days to answer, (6)(b)3: "Within 5 days after receiving a copy of the resident’s written appeal, the facility shall provide written justification to the department’s bureau of quality assurance for the transfer or discharge of the resident from the facility." A timely appeal holds the move — the pendency provision, (6)(b)4: "If the resident files a written appeal within 7 days after receiving notice of transfer or of discharge from the facility, the resident may not be transferred or discharged from the facility until the department’s bureau of quality assurance has completed its review of the decision and notified both the resident and the facility of its decision." The bureau then has fourteen days, (6)(b)5: "The department’s bureau of quality assurance shall complete its review of the facility’s decision and notify both the resident and the facility in writing of its decision within 14 days after receiving written justification for the transfer or discharge of the resident from the facility."
Second, either side may take the bureau's decision further, (6)(b)6: "A resident or a facility may appeal the decision of the department’s bureau of quality assurance in writing to the department of administration’s division of hearings and appeals within 5 days after receipt of the decision." The rule's own note gives the mailing address: "The mailing address of the Division of Hearings and Appeals is P.O. Box 7875, Madison, Wisconsin 53707." No street address or telephone number for the regional bureau of quality assurance office is stated in the rule — it is what the facility must post, per (6)(a)2 above, and no such posted notice has been captured. A closing exception, (6)(b)7: "The appeal procedures in this paragraph do not apply if the continued presence of the resident poses a danger to the health, safety or welfare of the resident or other residents." The rule's own note records a renaming: "The bureau of quality assurance was renamed the division of quality assurance."
The notice's required contents
DHS 132.53(3)(a): "The facility shall provide a resident, the resident’s physician and, if known, an immediate family member or legal counsel, guardian, relative or other responsible person at least 30 days notice of transfer or discharge under sub. (2) (a) 2. to 10., and the reasons for the transfer or discharge, unless the continued presence of the resident endangers the health, safety or welfare of the resident or other residents. The notice shall also contain the name, address and telephone number of the board on aging and long-term care. For a resident with developmental disability or mental illness, the notice shall contain the mailing address and telephone number of the protection and advocacy agency designated under s. 51.62 (2) (a), Stats." The appeal-rights requirement above, (6)(a)4, folds into the same notice: every transfer or discharge notice must include notice of the right to appeal.
The rule also requires a planning conference ahead of most moves. Notice of the conference itself, (3)(b)1: "Unless circumstances posing a danger to the health, safety or welfare of a resident require otherwise, at least 7 days before the planning conference required by subd. 2., the resident, guardian, if any, any appropriate county agency, and others designated by the resident, including the resident’s physician, shall be given a notice containing the time and place of the conference, a statement informing the resident that any persons of the resident’s choice may attend the conference, and the procedure for submitting a complaint to the department." The conference itself, (3)(b)2: "Unless the resident is receiving respite care or unless precluded by circumstances posing a danger to the health, safety, or welfare of a resident, prior to any involuntary transfer or discharge under sub. (2) (a) 2. to 10., a planning conference shall be held at least 14 days before transfer or discharge with the resident, guardian, if any, any appropriate county agency, and others designated by the resident, including the resident’s physician, to review the need for relocation, assess the effect of relocation on the resident, discuss alternative placements and develop a relocation plan which includes at least those activities listed in subd. 3." Those activities, (3)(b)3: "Counseling regarding the impending transfer or discharge;" "The opportunity for the resident to make at least one visit to the potential alternative placement, if any, including a meeting with that facility’s admissions staff, unless medically contraindicated or waived by the resident;" "Assistance in moving the resident and the resident’s belongings and funds to the new facility or quarters; and" "Provisions for needed medications and treatments during relocation." A resident-requested move gets the same help on request, (3)(b)4: "A resident who is transferred or discharged at the resident’s request shall be advised of the assistance required by subd. 3. and shall be provided with that assistance upon request."
Bed-hold and return
The rule states its own bed-hold limit. DHS 132.53(5)(a): "A resident who is on leave or temporarily discharged, as to a hospital for surgery or treatment, and has expressed an intention to return to the facility under the terms of the admission statement for bedhold, shall not be denied readmission unless, at the time readmission is requested, a condition of sub. (2) (b) has been satisfied." The limit itself, (5)(b): "The facility shall hold a resident’s bed under par. (a) until the resident returns, until the resident waives his or her right to have the bed held, or up to 15 days following the temporary leave or discharge, whichever is earlier." Before any hospital transfer or therapeutic leave, the facility owes written notice of the state plan's bedhold period, (4)(d)1: "Before a resident of a facility is transferred to a hospital or for therapeutic leave, the facility shall provide written information to the resident and an immediate family member or legal counsel concerning the provisions of the approved state medicaid plan about the period of time, if any, during which the resident is permitted to return and resume residence in the nursing facility." And at the time of transfer, (4)(d)2: "At the time of a resident’s transfer to a hospital or for therapeutic leave, the facility shall provide written notice to the resident and an immediate family member or legal counsel of the duration of the period, if any, specified under subd. 1."
The rule's own notes point past itself for that Medicaid-plan period, twice: after (4)(d)2, "The “approved state medicaid plan” referred to s. 49.498 (4) (d) 1a, Stats., and subd. 1. states that the department shall have a bedhold policy. The bedhold policy is found in s. DHS 107.09 (4) (j)."; and after (5)(b), "See s. DHS 107.09 (4) (j) for medical assistance bedhold rules." DHS 107.09 (Wisconsin Administrative Code, DHS 107.09, retrieved 2026-09-18) is the Medical Assistance chapter's nursing-home and intermediate-care-facility services rule, and its subsection (4) — "Other limitations." — runs through seven lettered paragraphs as currently published — (a) ancillary costs, (b) independent providers of service, (c) Christian Science sanatorium services, (d) wheelchairs, (e) determination of services as skilled, (f) skilled nursing or skilled rehabilitation services, and (g) intermediate care facility services — with no paragraph (j) and no paragraph addressing a reserved-bed or bedhold period anywhere in the section. The cross-reference DHS 132.53 states twice does not match the section it names as currently published. That is recorded here as a discrepancy rather than resolved: this page does not guess at a relocated or renumbered provision, and no other first-party Wisconsin source stating a Medicaid bedhold period in days was searched successfully. What the operative rule states in its own right — the facility's fifteen-day bedhold limit at (5)(b) — is quoted above and stands as the page's bed-hold figure; the Medicaid-plan period the notes point to is not stated in the sources reviewed.
The three rows above hoist the questions a facility's counsel answers in the first fifteen minutes. They are quotations from Wisconsin's published sources, not a determination that any of them applies to any situation.
Notice periods and deadlines, as stated in the sources
All quoted; none calculated.
Thirty days' advance notice of transfer or discharge — DHS 132.53(3)(a): "at least 30 days notice of transfer or discharge under sub. (2) (a) 2. to 10.", unless the continued presence of the resident endangers health, safety or welfare.
Seven days' notice of the planning conference — (3)(b)1: "at least 7 days before the planning conference required by subd. 2."
Fourteen days between the planning conference and the transfer or discharge — (3)(b)2: "a planning conference shall be held at least 14 days before transfer or discharge".
Seven days to appeal to the bureau of quality assurance — (6)(b)1: "the resident shall send a letter to the nearest regional office of the department’s bureau of quality assurance within 7 days after receiving a notice of transfer or discharge from the facility".
No transfer while a timely appeal is pending — (6)(b)4: "the resident may not be transferred or discharged from the facility until the department’s bureau of quality assurance has completed its review of the decision and notified both the resident and the facility of its decision."
Five days for the facility to justify the decision to the bureau — (6)(b)3: "Within 5 days after receiving a copy of the resident’s written appeal, the facility shall provide written justification".
Fourteen days for the bureau to decide — (6)(b)5: "notify both the resident and the facility in writing of its decision within 14 days after receiving written justification".
Five days to appeal the bureau's decision to the Division of Hearings and Appeals — (6)(b)6: "within 5 days after receipt of the decision."
Fifteen days' bed-hold limit — (5)(b): "up to 15 days following the temporary leave or discharge, whichever is earlier."
What any of these periods means for a particular case is for the hearing office or relevant state process to determine.
Source map
| Document | Publisher and location | Source's own date | Retrieved |
|---|---|---|---|
| DHS 132.53, Transfer and discharge | Wisconsin Legislature, Administrative Code | published under s. 35.93, Stats.; updated the first day of each month | 2026-09-18 |
| Board on Aging and Long Term Care — home page | BOALTC | none stated beyond the domain-change notice | 2026-08-30 |
| DHS 107.09, Skilled nursing home and intermediate care facility services | Wisconsin Legislature, Administrative Code | published under s. 35.93, Stats.; updated the first day of each month | 2026-09-18 |
Captured: all three, in tools/packets/wisconsin-packet.txt (recipe tools/recipes/wisconsin.json, digest 8cc775743cea). Pending: an address for the regional bureau office, a first-party statement of the Medicaid-plan bedhold period the rule's own notes point to (DHS 107.09(4)(j), which the section as currently published does not contain — see the finding in section 02), and the statutes that prevail over the rule where they conflict (s. 49.45(6c)(c) and (d), 49.498(4), 50.03(5m) or (14), Stats.) — per the packet's pending list.
Change log
2026-09-18 — Deepened to a full page. Recaptured the existing recipe (tools/recipes/wisconsin.json): sources 1 and 2 reproduce byte-for-byte against the 2026-09-06 standing packet, with only the retrieval date changing. Added source 3, DHS 107.09 (the Medical Assistance chapter's skilled-nursing and intermediate-care-facility services rule), captured by the same curl-with-browser-user-agent method as source 1; the recipe now digests 8cc775743cea and the packet was rebuilt and retained (retain-packet.py, result: rebuild). Wrote section 01 (the grounds, in the rule's own order, with the alternate-placement condition and the nonpayment limit) and section 02 (requesting the hearing, the notice's required contents including the planning-conference provisions, bed-hold and return, and the notice-periods register), reusing evidence already standing in the packet for the hearing-office and notice-contents rows — no new source was needed for either. One new capture was made for section 02's bed-hold row, to run down the Medicaid-plan bedhold period DHS 132.53's own notes point to at "s. DHS 107.09 (4) (j)." Finding (7): DHS 107.09, captured whole, states subsection (4), "Other limitations," in seven lettered paragraphs, (a) through (g), covering ancillary costs, independent providers of service, Christian Science sanatorium services, wheelchairs, the determination of skilled services, skilled nursing or rehabilitation services, and intermediate care facility services — no paragraph (j), and no bedhold or reserved-bed provision anywhere in the section as currently published. The rule's own cross-reference does not match its target as captured; that is recorded as a discrepancy rather than resolved, and no other first-party Wisconsin source stating a Medicaid bedhold period in days was searched successfully. The facility's own fifteen-day bedhold limit, stated directly in DHS 132.53(5)(b), stands as the page's bed-hold figure. Findings, continuing the existing numbering: (8) the appeal runs in two stages with three short clocks stacked in sequence — seven days to ask the bureau of quality assurance for a review, five days for the facility to justify its decision, fourteen days for the bureau to decide, then five days to appeal that decision to the Division of Hearings and Appeals — and a timely first appeal holds the transfer or discharge until the bureau's review is complete. (9) The planning-conference requirement (seven days' notice of the conference, the conference itself at least fourteen days before the move, and four listed relocation activities) sits in the same notice-and-process rule as everything else, with no separate publisher. Capture pending: per the source map above. Internet Archive: not yet submitted for this pass. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed 2026-09-18. Corrections: hello@fieldassembly.net.
2026-08-30 — Baseline page built from the first Wisconsin packet: docket, lede, source map, change log. Not yet captured or written: section 01 (the grounds, as Wisconsin describes them) and section 02 (the published process, including the notice's required contents, bed-hold and return, and the notice-periods register). Findings: (1) Wisconsin states ten grounds, and two of them — that the resident does not need nursing home care, and that the short-term care period has expired — have no counterpart in the federal enumeration. Both lists stand as published, and the federal list stays on the federal page. (2) The rule conditions most involuntary moves on an alternative placement being arranged first, and on a planning conference held at least fourteen days beforehand with seven days' notice of the conference; no other state built so far states either requirement. (3) The appeal runs in two stages with two short clocks: seven days to ask the bureau of quality assurance for a review, then five days to appeal that decision to the Division of Hearings and Appeals. The rule publishes the division's mailing address in its own note but states no address for the regional bureau office, which is what the facility must post; that absence is stated rather than filled. (4) Wisconsin states its own bed-hold limit in the rule — the facility holds the bed "up to 15 days following the temporary leave or discharge, whichever is earlier" — while a note points to the department's bed-hold policy at DHS 107.09(4)(j), which is not captured. Both are recorded, and the rule's fifteen days is quoted as the rule states it. (5) DHS 132.53(1) states that where the rule conflicts with named statutes, "the relevant statutory requirement shall apply"; those statutes are not captured, so this page quotes the rule and records the precedence provision rather than resolving it. (6) The Board on Aging and Long Term Care moved its website from longtermcare.wi.gov to boaltc.wi.gov, and its home page carries a notice to that effect; the source map cites the current domain. Capture pending: per the source map. Internet Archive: not yet submitted. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed 2026-08-30. Corrections: hello@fieldassembly.net.