News

On Friday, the House Health Care & Wellness Committee will hold a public hearing for House Bill 2450, which would give critical access hospitals taking part in a pilot program the ability to return to critical access status if they so choose when the pilot is complete.... Read More >>

On Tuesday, the Senate Health Care Committee will hold a public hearing for Senate Bill 6228. The bill seeks to have Washington State participate in a multi-state compact that would streamline physician licensure and make it easier for doctors to practice in multiple states. ... Read More >>

Senate Bill 5453 proposes to allow ambulatory surgical facilities to add “recovery care centers” that would care for post-surgical patients for an extended 48 hours after surgery, in addition to the currently permitted time of 23 hours and 59 minutes. This is a slightly modified version from last year’s bill, also opposed by WSHA.... Read More >>

The Senate Government Operations & Security Committee held a public hearing on Monday regarding three bills that impose unnecessary restrictions on public hospital districts. WSHA and AWPHD strongly oppose these bills, which place unnecessary restrictions on public hospital districts.... Read More >>

A summary of the bills WSHA will testify on from Jan. 19-22.... Read More >>

We are very thankful for everyone who came down to testify! Your testimony is essential for helping legislators and the public to understand the real impact of proposed legislation. The following people testified last week: • Laurene Burton, EvergreenHealth • Ty Heim, EvergreenHealt... Read More >>

The Pharmacy Commission wants to hear from you. The commission is seeking feedback from license holders regarding the pharmacy license inspection process through its online customer satisfaction survey, which is voluntary and anonymous.... Read More >>

The legislative session started on Monday, and if anyone had any lingering holiday dust, it’s been shaken off now. New committee chairs are in place and committee hearings have begun. After last year’s record-breaking long session, one of the hot topics is whether this year’s session will end on time. Everyone may be agreed on that intention, but the legislature has significant challenges ahead — especially around the McCleary decision on school funding and Initiative 1366.... Read More >>

Cassie Sauer, Claudia Sanders and Mary Kay Clunies-Ross talked about WSHA’s top priorities for the session, as well as how recent leadership changes might affect health care legislation this year.... Read More >>

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform Prospective Payment System (PPS) hospitals of changes to their Medicaid inpatient hospital payment rates effective January 1, 2016 due to changes to the Health Care Authority’s policy on paying for readmissions. HCA is replacing its existing policy of reviewing and denying individual readmission claims with a policy that uses a software program to compare each hospital’s rate of potentially preventable readmissions (PPR) rate with an expected rate based on the state’s general experience and the hospital’s mix of cases. Hospitals with higher than expected potentially preventable readmissions are subject to a penalty reduction applied to their inpatient payment rate.... Read More >>