The Winnebago County Board Tuesday approved creating two new positions to manage a program that provides health services to uninsured women in a four county area, including Winnebago, Fond du Lac, Outagamie and Sheboygan counties.

Under a plan approved by the board, Winnebago County will manage the Wisconsin Well Woman Program following a change in funding and providers announced by the state in December.

The program provides mammograms, Pap tests, other cancer screenings and tests for multiple sclerosis to low-income women ages 45 to 64. It is funded through a combination of federal and state dollars. Wisconsin is currently in the fourth year of a five-year contract with the federal Centers for Disease Control that provides funding. In most Wisconsin counties, the county health department serves as the coordinator for these services, but some outsource the work to private agencies. In the four-county area, Planned Parenthood has served as the coordinator since 1995.

State officials notified the organization in December that the Department of Health Services would not renew a $138,000 contract to coordinate the program at the end of the year. Winnebago County Health Director Doug Gieryn said county officials were not notified of the change, which left them little time to craft an alternate plan to continue facilitating referrals to women for health care services.

After public health officials and state lawmakers pressured DHS to provide an alternative by Jan. 1, a 60-day contract extension was granted to allow Planned Parenthood to continue running the program until the end of February, when Winnebago County will assume the responsibilities of the program.“Our agreement with Winnebago County includes a transition plan to ensure that service coordination continues without interruption to help women access vital breast and cervical cancer-screening services in this four-county area.” DHS Secretary Dennis Smith wrote in a statement announcing the extension.

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