On March 9, WSHA reported in Inside Olympia the progress on major bills that we support. We are pleased to share that any differences in the Senate and House versions were resolved and all of those bills are on their way to the Governor’s desk or have already been signed. These include:
- ESSB 5385: Concerning telemedicine payment parity;
- ESSB 6404: Reducing barriers to patient care through appropriate use of prior authorization:
- SSB 6358 (now EHB 1552): Requiring Medicaid managed care organizations to provide reimbursement of health care services provided by substitute providers:
- SB 6359: Creating regulation exemptions for Rural Health Clinics providing services in a designated home health shortage area; and
- Lastly while 2SSB 6275, Increasing patient access rights to timely and appropriate post-acute care, did not pass some provisions were included in the budget. WSHA’s work on the policy bill enabled success on the budget provisions.
Several of the bills were modified during the legislative process, yet still accomplish their primary objectives, WSHA will provide detailed information regarding these and other bills in our legislative summary and bill-specific bulletins. (Andrew Busz, andrewb@wsha.org)
