We’ve had an exciting session so far, with hearings running into the wee hours! As you can imagine, we are closely watching many bills that could have profound effects on health care in Washington state, including health care privacy, mental health, maternity care, reproductive care, and gender-affirming treatment. If you’re keeping track, a total of 2,192 bills were introduced in the 2023-2024 session and 28% are still alive. Here’s the breakdown: 1108 passed the Policy Cutoff, 818 passed the Fiscal Cutoff, and 611 passed the Floor Cutoff. We expect the next two weeks will be very busy–March 28th is the deadline for when bills must pass out of the opposite house policy committee to stay alive.

Here are the 28 bills still in play that we’re paying attention to:

• HB 1128, Personal needs allowance – This Dept. of Social and Health Services agency request bill would increase the personal needs allowance for clients in medical institutions or residential settings to $100 per month in 2023 and indexed thereafter, allowing Medicaid long-term care clients to keep more funds for basic necessities. 
• HB 1134, 988 system – This NAMI-WA priority bill would support the state’s new 988 behavioral health crisis hotline by laying the groundwork for crisis response teams and increasing public awareness.
• HB 1155, Consumer health data – This Attorney General and abortion & gender justice coalition priority would prohibit selling consumer health data without the person’s authorization with the goal of making it harder for entities like period-tracking apps or crisis pregnancy centers to share sensitive reproductive health data. 
• HB 1188, Individuals with developmental disabilities – This Arc of WA priority bill would require the Caseload Forecast Council to forecast Developmental Disability Administration waiver slots for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are also receiving certain child welfare services, and would require DSHS to apply for a new Medicaid waiver to serve children and youth with developmental disabilities involved in certain child welfare services. 
• HB 1508, Health Care Cost Transparency Board – This Fair Health Prices Washington priority bill would strengthen the Health Care Cost Transparency Board to enforce the state’s health care spending by implementing performance improvement plans and penalties on those that do not adhere to the benchmark set by the Board.
• HB 1222, Hearing instruments coverage – This patient-led bill would require state-regulated large group plans to provide coverage for hearing instruments and would require the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) to include hearing instruments the next time it updates the Essential Health Benefits package for individual and small group plans. 
• HB 1238, Free school meals – This priority from new House Health Care & Wellness committee Chair Riccelli would provide free breakfast and lunch to K-4 students beginning in public schools with higher poverty levels. 
• HB 1260, Stability for people with work-limiting disability – This Statewide Poverty Action Network priority bill would improve eligibility for safety-net financial assistance programs ABD, HEN, and PWA, which in turn qualifies people for the Medical Care Services program. 
• HB 1357, Modernizing prior authorization – This WA State Medical Association priority bill would standardize prior authorization timelines and processes for state-regulated health plans and Medicaid managed care organizations. Prior authorization refers to health insurers’ decisions whether or not they agree to cover a person’s health care service. 
• HB 1407, Maintaining developmental disability services – This Arc of WA priority bill prevents DSHS from termination eligibility for developmental disabilities services solely due to age when a child has been determined eligible on or after the child’s third birthday. 
• HB 1469, Reproductive and gender-affirming treatment access – This reproductive coalition priority would shield providers of sensitive health services like abortion from criminal proceedings in and extradition to other states. 
• HB 1515, Behavioral health medical assistance contracting – This King County priority bill would require the Health Care Authority to make changes to the Medicaid managed care organization procurement and contracting process for behavioral health services, including statewide behavioral health network adequacy standards. 
• HB 1745, Clinical trials diversity – This Patient Coalition of WA priority bill would require state universities, hospitals, and agencies that receive federal funding for prescription drug or medical device clinical trials to take steps to recruit participants from underrepresented demographic groups.
• SB 5103, Difficult to discharge Medicaid patients – This WA State Hospital Association priority bill would increase reimbursement for Apple Health patients who no longer need acute inpatient care, but cannot be safely discharged for specific reasons. 
• SB 5120, 23-hour crisis relief centers – This NAMI-WA priority bill would direct the Dept. of Health to license 23-hour Crisis Relief Centers, a new type of crisis diversion facility to serve people regardless of behavioral health acuity instead of jails or hospitals. 
• SB 5130, Assisted outpatient treatment – This AOT petition bill reduces the burden of proof from clear, cogent, and convincing to a preponderance of the evidence and allows a behavioral health case manager to file the supporting declaration for an AOT petition. 
• SB 5179, Death with Dignity access – This End of Life WA priority bill would expand the types of providers authorized to perform the duties of the Death with Dignity Act and reduce waiting periods to request these services. 
• SB 5236, Safe & Healthy – This SEIU 1199 NW priority bill would set staffing loads and working conditions to support frontline healthcare workers. 
• SB 5242, Abortion cost-sharing – This abortion & gender justice coalition priority would eliminate cost-sharing for abortion services in state-regulated private health plans. 
• SB 5300, Behavioral health drug continuity of care – This NAMI-WA priority bill would prohibit state-regulated health plans and Medicaid managed care organizations from changing their formulary or increasing cost-sharing mid-year for certain prescription drugs for serious mental illness. 
• SB 5304, Language access testing – This Interpreters United union priority bill would require the Dept. of Social and Health Services to administer language access provider testing that meets certain requirements and creates a new workgroup to make recommendations related to interpreter services. 
• SB 5338, Essential Health Benefits review – This patient group priority bill would require OIC to review the state’s essential health benefits benchmark plan to determine whether to modify the standard benefit package that applies to private individual and small group health plans. 
• SB 5388 – This bill requires the Washington State Institutional Review Board to establish a diversity in clinical trials program to encourage participation in clinical trials by people who are members of traditionally underrepresented demographic groups.
• SB 5580 and SB 5581, Maternity care access – This bill duo would expand access to maternity care services. SB 5580 would increase the income limit for pregnancy/postpartum Apple Health from 193% FPL to 210% FPL and expand other perinatal and postpartum care services. SB 5581 would require OIC to develop strategies to reduce cost-sharing for maternity care services in state-regulated private health plans. 
• SB 5632, Striking worker premium assistance – This bill would require the Health Benefit Exchange to administer a premium assistance program for employees who lose employer-sponsored health insurance as a result of a labor dispute. 
• SB 5700, Health Care Authority statute modernization – This Health Care Authority priority bill would make technical “clean-up” amendments to HCA statutes, including provisions related to Apple Health, PEBB/SEBB, and the Health Care Cost Transparency Board. 
• SB 5486/HB 1473, Wealth tax – This Balance Our Tax Code coalition priority would raise new revenue by establishing a 1% tax on financial intangible assets in excess of $250 million.