The 2023 legislative session ended April 23 with House and Senate unveiling their final budget on Saturday, April 22. Overall, this is a very good budget for hospitals and health care. It makes significant investments in nearly all WSHA’s priority budget areas and funds substantial rate increases for long-term care and community behavioral health providers and health care coverage expansions. Several WSHA priority bills also passed during the session, including the hospital safety net assessment program and changes to payment for difficult to discharge patients. A comprehensive summary of the budget is in our recent Inside Olympia.
WSHA is preparing a legislative summary of the budget and bills passed during the session. WSHA staff are also preparing a new law implementation guide to help hospitals implement all the new laws passed during the legislative session. The guide will list the high priority laws passed this legislative session that WSHA is preparing resources and information on, whether hospital action is required, the resource(s) WSHA is preparing, a timeline for the release of the resources, the effective date of the law, and the WSHA staff who can help address any follow up questions. (Andrew Busz, andrewb@wsha.org)
