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IRIS: 2026 FEA Announcement

The Department of Health Services (DHS) announced the “notice of intent” to select Public Partnerships LLC (PPL) as the new IRIS fiscal employer agent (FEA) vendor for the Wisconsin Medicaid IRIS program.

There are many benefits to having one FEA

  • One benefit is that all participants, participant-hired workers (PHWs), billing providers, and IRIS consultant agencies will have one consistent process for things like timesheets, billing, and new hire paperwork.
  • DHS anticipates better customer service, including faster vendor response times.
  • Participants and billing providers will also have more access to information about their spending and activities in a secure web portal.

How Wisconsin Medicaid chose PPL

Wisconsin uses a fair and competitive review process to select vendors. PPL had the highest scoring proposal among all of the vendors who submitted to provide these fiscal services under RFP S-1640 DMS-25.

Timeline

  • January 29, 2026: DHS announced “notice of intent” to select PPL as the new IRIS FEA vendor for the Wisconsin Medicaid IRIS program.
  • January 29–February 7, 2026: All organizations that applied to provide IRIS FEA services had 10 days to submit a formal protest as allowable under State of Wisconsin Chapter 16 Statutes.
  • February 8, 2026: DHS began reviewing formal protests.

Next steps

DHS will update this webpage when the protest process is complete.

DHS has decided to work with one FEA going forward. All participants will work with that one FEA.

DHS will notify IRIS participants about next steps and timelines. Current IRIS participants will begin transferring to the new FEA no earlier than 2027. For more information about the FEA transition and other IRIS news, sign up to receive “IRIS Program Updates” emails.

Yes, IRIS participants will be able to keep their same workers.

No. DHS and the new FEA will work together to transfer participants from their current FEA to the new FEA. DHS will let IRIS participants know the timing of the transfer after these details are final.

IRIS participants will start working with the new FEA no earlier than 2027. Before this FEA transition, DHS and the new FEA will work with participants, participant-hired workers, and billing providers to share how the new FEA processes will work.

There are many benefits to having one FEA. One benefit is that all participants, PHWs, billing providers, and IRIS consultant agencies will have one consistent process for things like timesheets, billing, and new hire paperwork. DHS anticipates better customer service, including faster vendor response times. Participants and billing providers will also have more access to information about their spending and activities in a secure web portal.

DHS announced the “notice of intent” to select Public Partnerships LLC (PPL) as the new IRIS FEA vendor for the Wisconsin Medicaid IRIS program. Learn about PPL on their website.

Wisconsin uses a fair and competitive review process to select vendors. PPL had the highest scoring proposal among all of the vendors who submitted to provide IRIS fiscal employer agency services.

Yes. Participants are still able to transfer between the existing FEAs each quarter as listed on the IRIS FEA Transfer Calendar, P-02239. Beginning in 2027, participants will work with one FEA vendor.

Contact DHS with questions or to provide feedback by email or phone:

Sign up to receive “IRIS Program Updates” emails. DHS will send an email with more information once the protest process is complete.

DHS will also update this webpage when the protest process is complete.

DHS will share more information once the protest process is complete. Sign up to receive “IRIS Program Updates” emails.

Glossary

 
Last revised March 6, 2026