Apple Health Expansion is Essential to WA
by Lee Che P. Leong, NoHLA Senior Policy Advocate, and Kaitie Dong, Washington State Budget and Policy Center Senior Policy Analyst Cross-posted from the WA Budget and Policy Center blog. Everyone deserves health care, no matter their skin color, ability, income, or immigration status. Apple Health Expansion (AHE) is a program that expands access to...
Board Member Mayra Colazo
Please join us in welcoming Mayra Colazo to the NoHLA Board! Mayra joined the Northwest Health Law Advocates (NoHLA) Board of Directors in July 2026. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Central Washington Disability Resources, where she has been part of the team since March 2016. Mayra brings extensive experience in nonprofit leadership,...
Update: Litigation We’ve Been Watching
by Vanessa R. Saavedra, NoHLA Senior Attorney For better or worse, our health care system is a top news item these days. It's hard to keep up! To help increase awareness of what's been happening in the courts, NoHLA compiled updates on federal and state litigation with impacts to care. Here are some of the...
Save the Date – September 25 Join Mending Health With Community
You're invited! Please join us for: Mending Health Care with Community Friday, September 25, 2026 Hybrid (In-Person in Seattle, WA + Virtual Option) Join Northwest Health Law Advocates (NoHLA) in Seattle this fall for Mending Health Care with Community, a statewide gathering for professionals, students, advocates, and community partners who interact with health care law,...
DOJ Opinion and the Rights of People with Disabilities
by Vanessa R. Saavedra, NoHLA Senior Attorney The average American is not, nor should they have to be, prepared to fight every day of their life for basic civil rights. All too many incidences of discrimination have gone by, undefended, because of lack of protection under the law. - Judy Heumann, “the mother” of the...
Reflections on Leadership and Juneteenth
by Daphne Smith, NoHLA Co-Executive Director (featured furthest left in photo celebrating the 2026 Tubman Health Center soil turning ceremony in Rainier Beach, Seattle, WA) Never to forget where we came from and always praise the bridges that carried us over. - Fannie Lou HamerSuccess is to be measured not so much by the position...
Seattle uses AI to help triage, divert 911 medical calls, The Seattle Times
From The Seattle Times article, "Seattle uses AI to help triage, divert 911 medical calls," by Daniel Beekman: SFD started using live AI prompts in December 2023 to help dispatchers more consistently identify 911 calls to divert to the nurse line, Lombard said. Corti's AI now listens to all 911 medical calls and, when it...
Where Affordable Care Act insurance coverage has dropped most in WA, Washington State Standard
From Washington State Standard article, "Where Affordable Care Act insurance coverage has dropped most in WA" by Jake Goldstein-Street: Enrollment increased nowhere in the state, but some areas have been hit harder than others. Rural counties saw some of the biggest drops in coverage between March 2025 and this March. Over 1,100 Yakima County residents...
Equity Is More Than a Value, It’s a Responsibility
by Daphne Smith, NoHLA Co-Executive Director and Excelsior Wellness Board Member Originally written for Excelsior Wellness and cross-posted here with permission from the author. A few years ago in Spokane, hospitals and urgent care centers seemed to appear almost overnight. Many were placed in central, highly trafficked areas — often near one another and their...
Charity Care Tested in Court. Again.
by Vanessa R. Saavedra, NoHLA Senior Attorney When it comes to Washington's charity care laws, NoHLA has been advocating for consumer access and protections since 1989. We recently joined Columbia Legal Services and Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility in filing an amicus brief (also known as a friend-of-the-court brief) in the case of Preston v....