It was an exciting week leading up to Friday’s cutoff for bills to be voted out of their original policy committee. (Cutoff calendar is here.) To make it easy, we’ve listed all of the major bills we’ve been tracking. This is just a partial list; WSHA/AWPHD staff have reviewed more than 300 bills thus far.
Bills that have not moved out of their committee are most likely dead for the session, but nothing is really dead until session is adjourned. Components of “dead” bills can be added to other bills that are still “alive,” and bills that are necessary to implement the budget are exempt from cutoffs. We will be reading amendments very carefully as bills continue to move.
Below is the status of WSHA/AWPHD’s top priority bills that are still alive. Once the cutoff for bills to move from their original house has passed, we will update you about bills that have died. We have successfully opposed a number of important bills that are not moving forward.
Bills WSHA supports
| HB 1337 / SB 5221 | Creating the interstate medical licensure compact. |
| HB 1338 / SB 5253 | Addressing the Washington state health insurance pool. |
| HB 1413 / SB 5435 | Specifying to whom information and records related to mental health services may be disclosed for the purposes of care coordination and treatment. |
| HB 1426 | Concerning persons and entities to whom the department of health may provide prescription monitoring program data. |
| HB 1520 | Allowing alternative payment methodologies for critical access hospitals participating in the Washington rural health access preservation pilot. |
| HB 1547 | Exempting certain hospitals from certificate of need requirements for the addition of psychiatric beds until June 2019. |
| HB 1637 / SB 5471 | Concerning the reimbursement rate primary care providers receive to participate in medicaid. |
| HB 1640 | Allowing notaries and proof of identity for advance directives. |
| HB 1641 | Concerning informed consent for nonemergency, outpatient, primary health care services for unaccompanied homeless youth under the federal McKinney-Vento homeless assistance act. |
| HB 1713 / SB 5763 | Implementing recommendations from the children’s mental health work group. |
| HB 1766 | Concerning the hospital safety net assessment. |
| HB 1854 | Concerning the transition of medicaid enrollees to skilled nursing facility care. |
| HB 2107 and SB 5434 | Concerning the addition of services for long-term placement of mental health patients in community hospitals that voluntarily contract and are certified by the department of social and health services. |
| SB 5248 | Concerning persons to whom the department of health may provide prescription monitoring program data. |
| SB 5436 | Expanding patient access to health services through telemedicine by further defining where a patient may receive the service. |
| SB 5456 | Concerning unpaid accounts. |
| SB 5457 | Expanding patient access to health services through telemedicine and store and forward technology by requiring parity in payment for services. |
| SB 5581 | Authorizing public hospital districts to participate in self-insurance risk pools with nonprofit hospitals. |
| SB 5800 | Concerning obligations of mental health professionals. |
Bills AWPHD supports
| HB 1594 | Improving public records administration. |
| HB 1595 | Concerning costs associated with responding to public records requests. |
| HB 1932 / 5659 | Addressing the eligibility of emergency medical technicians employed by public hospital districts for membership in the law enforcement officers’ and firefighters’ retirement system. |
Bills that are works in progress for WSHA
| HB 1477 | Concerning disclosure of health-related information with persons with a close relationship with a patient. |
Bills WSHA opposes
| HB 1339 | Providing for restrictions on prescriptions for opioid drugs. |
| HB 1714 | Concerning nursing staffing practices at hospitals. |
| HB 1715 | Addressing meal and rest breaks and mandatory overtime for certain health care employees. |
| HB 1967 | Concerning noncompetition agreements. |
| HB 2114 | Protecting consumers from charges for out-of-network health services. |
Bills AWPHD opposes
| HB 1655 | Providing industrial insurance coverage for stress-caused mental disorders and disabilities of members of the law enforcement officers’ and firefighters’ retirement system. |
| SB 5218 | Requiring notification to law enforcement of persons with an arrest warrant who are on public agency property. |
| SB 5607 | Concerning education. |
Thank you for last week
We are very thankful for everyone who comes to Olympia to testify! Your testimony is essential for helping legislators and the public to understand the real impact of proposed legislation. Last week, we were pleased to have testimony from:
- Syd Bersante, CHI Franciscan Health
- Geri Forbes, WhidbeyHealth
- Matt Lund, UW Medicine/Harborview Medical Center
- Dr. Michael Anderson, CHI Franciscan Health
