With nine days left in the 2020 session, Monday, March 2 was the deadline for bills to pass out of fiscal committees in the opposite chamber. Bills still alive will now be considered by the full opposite chamber. These bills must pass the opposite chamber by 5pm on Friday, March 6 and then be signed by the governor to become law. Though if the details differ between the House and Senate’s versions of the bill, the final bill language will need to be negotiated in conference.
The Legislature is working on finalizing the budget, which we expect to be released late next week. One big and new item will be how the Legislature appropriates funding for the coronavirus (COVID-19). WSHA strongly supports efforts to bolster public health response. In addition, hospitals need help to discharge the more than 400 patients statewide who no longer need to be in the hospital. WSHA has been strongly advocating for more resources for the Department of Health and Human Services to assess and provide funding for community placements.
2SSB 6275: Increasing patient access rights to timely and appropriate post-acute care
WSHA strongly supports 2SSB 6275 to expedite hospital discharge for Medicaid patients in need of post-acute care. This is part of WSHA’s work to address the challenge of difficult-to-discharge patients stuck in our hospitals due to barriers in accessing post-acute care. WSHA’s input played a key role in crafting this legislation. 2SSB 6275 passed the House Committee on Appropriations and now awaits consideration by the full House. Read more from the Jan. 27 Inside Olympia. (Zosia Stanley)
ESSB 6404: Establishing a prior authorization work group and creating recommendations
WSHA strongly supports ESSB 6404, which would help create uniform recommendations for when prior authorization is used. WSHA’s input played a key role in crafting this legislation. Because of unresolved issues related to the work group recommendations, the bill was amended in committee to narrow the bill to require the health plans to submit data on their top prior authorizations in aggregate for medical/surgical and behavioral health services. ESSB 6404 passed the House Committee on Health Care and Wellness and now awaits consideration by the full House. Read more from the Feb. 20 Inside Olympia. (Andrew Busz)
SSB 6358: Requiring Medicaid managed care organizations to provide reimbursement of health care services provided by substitute providers
WSHA strongly supports SSB 6358, which would require Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) to follow Medicare policy in how substitute providers are reimbursed when they fill in at a facility for longer than 60 days. It would also expand the instances in which substitute providers could be used. WSHA’s input played a key role in crafting this legislation. SSB 6358 passed the House Appropriations Committee on Saturday and now awaits consideration by the full House. Read more from the Jan. 27 Inside Olympia. (Lauren McDonald)
SB 6359: Creating regulation exemptions for rural health clinics providing services in a designated home health shortage area
WSHA strongly supports SB 6359, which would allow Rural Health Clinics in shortage areas to offer a limited scope of services — including home nursing visits — to homebound patients, increasing access to critical services in underserved communities. WSHA’s input played a key role in crafting this legislation. SB 6359 passed the House Committee on Health Care & Wellness and now awaits consideration by the full House. Read more from the Jan. 27 Inside Olympia. (Jacqueline Barton True)
ESSB 5385: Concerning telemedicine payment parity
WSHA strongly supports ESSB 5385, which allows telemedicine services to be paid for at the same rate as in-person visits. It also removes the requirement that a patient must first have an in-person visit with a provider before the use of store-and-forward technology will be reimbursed. In the House Committee on Appropriations, an amendment was adopted to include an emergency clause. This would have the bill be in effect immediately, rather than as of Jan. 1, 2021. It is unclear if this amendment will be retained by the full House. The bill passed the House Committee on Appropriations and now awaits consideration by the full House. Read the Feb. 12 Inside Olympia for more information. (Shirley Prasad)
SHB 2426: Increasing oversight of freestanding psychiatric hospitals
WSHA still has a couple of remaining concerns with SHB 2426, which would implement new and considerable oversight by DOH on freestanding psychiatric hospitals. WSHA has negotiated significant amendments to the original version that was introduced in the House and continues to work on remaining issues. The bill passed the Senate Committee on Ways and Means and now awaits consideration by the full Senate. (Shirley Prasad)
2SHB 2457: Establishing a cost transparency board
WSHA has concerns with 2SHB 2457, which would establish a cost transparency board to analyze the total health care expenditures in Washington, identify trends in health care cost growth and establish a health care growth benchmark. We helped secure the amendment that includes consideration of cost drivers, such as wages and prescription drug costs. The bill passed the Senate Committee on Ways and Means and now awaits consideration by the full Senate. Read more from the Jan. 20 Inside Olympia. (Zosia Stanley)
2E2SSB 5720: Concerning the Involuntary Treatment Act
WSHA is neutral on 2E2SSB 5720, which makes significant changes to the Involuntary Treatment Act, including increasing the initial detention period and lowering criteria for detention through definitional changes. WSHA has had strong concerns about proposed definitional changes and their negative implications on overall bed capacity without adequate funding to care for the increased numbers of patients. We were pleased to see the House Appropriations Committee amended the bill to say that definitional changes may only go into effect if Single Bed Certification use declines significantly and remains measurably low for a certain period of time. The bill retains the change in commitment hearing timeline from 72 hours to 120 hours. Read the Feb. 12 Inside Olympia for more information. (Jaclyn Greenberg)
2SSB 6281: Concerning the management and oversight of personal data
WSHA moved from support to neutral on 2SSB 6281, which would create a general data privacy framework in Washington State. We are very pleased to see the bill’s clear coordination with the existing universe of health privacy laws through careful exemption language, but we are concerned with the enforcement provisions as passed out of the House policy and fiscal committees. Read the Feb. 12 Inside Olympia for more information. (Jaclyn Greenberg)
ESHB 2318: Sexual assault kits
WSHA supports ESHB 2318, which is a comprehensive bill that optimizes the storage and handling of evidence gathered during sexual assault examinations. ESHB 2318 passed the Senate Committee on Law & Justice and now awaits consideration by the full Senate. Read more from the Jan. 13 Inside Olympia. (Lauren McDonald)
ESHB 1608: Protecting patient care
ESHB 1608 would have prohibited hospitals and health care facilities from appropriately managing the types and quality of services provided by health care providers. WSHA actively negotiated with the bill sponsor and stakeholders to narrow the bill to ensure patients receive information about treatment options. WSHA supports the narrowly tailored language in ESHB 1608. The bill passed Senate Committee on Health and Long Term Care and now awaits consideration from the full Senate. Read the Feb. 12 Inside Olympia for more information. (Zosia Stanley)
SHB 1826: Concerning the disclosure of certain information during the discharge planning process
WSHA is neutral on SHB 1826, which would require hospitals that provide 90/180-day services under the Involuntary Treatment Act to patients who committed a violent felony to provide relevant criminal and forensic information in its possession to managed care organizations and the like upon discharge. The bill effectively applies to state hospitals only. WSHA advocated strongly to narrow the scope and application of the bill, which was originally much broader. We were pleased to see the Behavioral Health Subcommittee to the Senate Committee on Health & Long Term Care narrow the bill as it did. (Jaclyn Greenberg)
High-priority bills still alive after cutoff
Bills WSHA Supports
| HB 1552 | Concerning health care provider credentialing by health carriers. |
| HB 1590 | Allowing the local sales and use tax for affordable housing to be imposed by a councilmanic authority. |
| ESHB 1608 | Protecting patient care. Support current language only. |
| SHB 2318 | Advancing criminal investigatory practices (sexual assault kits). |
| SHB 2326 | Reporting end-of-life care policies. |
| HB 2416 | Relating to disclosures of information and records related to forensic mental health services. |
| SHB 2419 | Studying barriers to the use of the Washington death with dignity act. |
| SHB 2448 | Concerning enhanced services facilities. |
| HB 2737 | Updating the children’s mental health work group. |
| SHB 2883 | Expanding adolescent behavioral health care access. |
| E2SSB 5483 | Improving services for individuals with developmental disabilities. |
| ESSB 6040 | Concerning the budgeting process for certain state waiver services for individuals with developmental disabilities. |
| SSB 6088 | Establishing a prescription drug affordability board. |
| 2SSB 6275 | Increasing patient access rights to timely and appropriate post-acute care. |
| SSB 6358 | Requiring Medicaid managed care organizations to provide reimbursement of health care services provided by substitute providers. |
| SB 6359 (companion to SHB 2621) | Creating regulation exemptions for rural health clinics providing services in a designated home health shortage area. |
| SSB 6404 | Adopting prior authorization and appropriate use criteria in patient care. |
| SSB 6591 | Establishing a work group to address mental health advance directives. |
Bills on which WSHA is neutral
| SHB 1826 | Concerning the disclosure of certain information during the discharge planning process. |
| SHB 2464 | Protecting patients from excess prescription medication charges. |
| 2SHB 2457 | Establishing a cost transparency board. |
| 2E2SSB 5720 | Concerning the Involuntary Treatment Act. |
| SSB 6058 | Concerning fire district health clinic services. |
| 2SHB 6281 | Concerning the management and oversight of personal data. |
| SSB 6440 | Concerning industrial insurance medical examinations. |
Bills with which WSHA has concerns or for which it is seeking amendments
| SHB 2426 | Protecting patient safety in psychiatric hospitals and other health care facilities. |
Bills WSHA opposes
| SHB 2409 | Concerning industrial insurance employer penalties, duties, and the licensing of third-party administrators. |
