DOH proposes increase to hospital licensing fees to cover fire safety inspections

Under a proposed rule, the licensing fee for acute care hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, and alcohol and chemical dependency hospitals will increase by $15 per bed to cover the cost of fire safety inspections performed by the State Fire Marshal’s Office. The current funding source for these inspections is a contractor licensing fee account and it is no longer viable. WSHA worked with the Department of Health, the State Fire Marshal’s Office, and other stakeholders during the 2017 legislative session to ensure that the state will continue to perform important, legally required hospital safety inspections and that any fee increase is narrowly tailored to cover the actual costs of fire code inspections. Under the proposed rule, the fee increase will be effective in late 2017. For more information on the proposed rule, see our recent bulletin. (Zosia Stanley, zosias@wsha.org)