July 1, 2023 marks the one-year anniversary of a new law that expanded hospital “charity care,”  financial assistance to more Washington residents. With those changes, half of Washington’s population became financially eligible for free or reduced-cost hospital health care and the state took the lead in adopting the strongest protection for out-of-pocket hospital costs in the country, according to Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. 

But troubling data shows that Washington residents may not be getting the full benefit of hospital charity care laws. In 2020, Lown Institute’s Fair Share Spending report shows Washington hospitals received $275 million more in tax breaks and other benefits than they spent on financial assistance and community investments. In 2021, data from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) shows hospitals spent only 1.5% of total hospital revenue on charity care. 

DOH is considering policies and procedures governing hospital charity care in its current charity care rulemaking process. The rules are intended to incorporate changes from SHB 1616 and SSB 6273. NoHLA is providing suggestions for improvements to the current rules. If you are interested in finding out more about the charity care rulemaking meetings and submitting or reviewing comments, see DOH’s charity care web page. For more information on charity care, see DOH’s recent guidance available in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Marshallese, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.