News

The Washington Health Benefit Exchange on August 15 announced the nine lead organizations chosen to oversee in-person assistance provided to Washington residents during the upcoming open enrollment period scheduled to begin on November 1. Among the organizations is WSHA member Wenatchee Valley Hospital.... Read More >>

WSHA is providing its members a draft version of the comments it will be submitting to the Office of the Insurance Commissioner in response to the OIC’s notice of rulemaking related to alternative authorization processes, sometimes known as gold carding.... Read More >>

WSHA recently sent three hospital-specific reports to the chief financial officer at each of our member hospitals. The reports include:... Read More >>

Based on conversations with member hospitals and other hospital associations, there is an increasing number of health plans that are subcontracting with outside firms to do pre-payment audits of hospital claims.... Read More >>

The House and Senate recently adjourned for August recess. Both houses will reconvene on September 5. In anticipation of meetings with members of the congressional delegation, we have developed talking points and provided some background information on the aftermath of Senate not moving forward with the proposals on the Affordable Care Act (ACA). WSHA encourages hospital leaders to meet with their members of Congress during the break. Please let WSHA staff know if we can provide any assistance.... Read More >>

WSHA and the Washington State Medical Association have identified six promising strategies addressing overdose prevention, expanding access to treatment and improving opioid prescribing practices that hospitals and health systems can use to address the opioid crisis as part of their work with Accountable Communities of Health (ACHs).... Read More >>

Pharmacy services are a critical component to hospital operations and supporting the health of a community. Tele-pharmacy — the uses of technology to enable a pharmacist to remotely monitor the activities of a pharmacy technician to avoid issues such as compounding drugs — offers new and innovative ways to ensure access to high-quality pharmacy services.... Read More >>

The purpose of this bulletin is to offer a set of strategies that can help hospitals, health systems, and independent/group practices and Accountable Communities of Health (ACH) address the opioid crisis.... Read More >>

The Senate’s rejection last week of three proposals to repeal and partially replace the Affordable Care Act has ended the health care debate for now. But that’s not the end of the health care story. The Senate HELP Committee — on which Sen. Murray is the senior Democrat — announced hearings in early September on proposals to stabilize the insurance market. They want to produce a bill by mid-September.... Read More >>

After three days of debate and voting, the final proposal from Senate Republican leadership known as “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) failed by a 49-51 margin. This measure would have repealed the individual insurance mandate and the medical device tax, and delayed the employer mandate for eight years. Along with the failure of two other proposals earlier in the week, the vote brings an end — for now — to Republican efforts to repeal and replace the ACA that have lasted for six months.... Read More >>