It’s been an exciting session so far and we are pleased to report that several of the bills that are NoHLA priorities are still making their way through the legislative process. Yesterday was the policy cutoff for bills to make it out of the opposite house. There is a quick turnaround, as all bills must pass out of their opposite house fiscal committee by Monday, February 26th. 

These key health bills have passed the house of origin and opposite house policy cutoff by the February 21st deadline and are still “alive” for this session: 

• Health Care Cost Transparency Board – HB 1508 strengthens the work of the state’s Health Care Cost Transparency Board (HCCTB) by creating an ongoing survey of underinsurance trends, adding consumer seats to the HCCTB advisory committee, and requiring insurers and providers that exceed the state’s health cost goals to participate in an annual public hearing. This bill has been a NoHLA priority as part of the Fair Health Prices WA effort. Passed the House and Senate Health, scheduled for executive session in Senate Ways and Means.

• Nothing About Us Without Us – HB 1541 requires statutory entities to include participation of underrepresented populations who have lived experience in workgroups, advisory committees and task forces. This bill has been a priority for people experiencing disabilities and others. Passed the House and Senate State Government and Elections Committee, pending in Senate Rules.

• Tribal Involuntary Treatment Act –  HB 1877 includes tribes, Indian health care providers, and tribal entities in processes under the Involuntary Treatment Act. Passed the House and Senate Law and Justice Committee, scheduled for hearing in Senate Ways & Means.

• Young Adult Behavioral Health Support – HB 1929 establishes housing and behavioral health supports for 18 to 24 year-olds exiting inpatient behavioral health treatment. Passed the House and Senate Human Services Committee, scheduled for hearing in Senate Ways & Means.

• Health Homes for Medically Complex Children. HB 1941 requires the Health Care Authority to submit a state plan amendment to allow Medicaid-eligible children with medically complex conditions to voluntarily enroll in a health home. Passed the House and Senate Health Committee, scheduled for hearing in Senate Ways & Means. 

• Behavioral Health Scholarships – HB 1946 creates scholarships for behavioral health care providers who serve in underserved behavioral health areas. Passed the House and Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, scheduled for hearing in Senate Ways and Means. 

• Protecting Preventive Services – HB 1957 ensures Washingtonians with state-regulated health plans can continue to access a full range of preventive services that would otherwise be threatened by the ongoing Braidwood v. Becerra litigation. Passed the House and the Senate Health Committee, pending in Senate Rules. 

• Reducing the Cost of Inhalers and Epinephrine Autoinjectors – HB 1979 requires state-regulated health plans to limit cost-sharing for at least one kind of inhaler and epinephrine autoinjector to $35 for a 30-day supply. Passed the House and the Senate Health Committee, pending in Senate Rules. 

• Abortion Prescription Drug Labels – HB 2115 allows the label for an abortion medication to include the prescribing provider’s National Provider Identifier or the health care facility name instead of the provider’s name. Passed the House and the Senate, awaiting the Governor’s signature.

• Certificate of Need Modernization – HB 2128 creates a task force to examine the state’s Certificate of Need (CON) process. Passed the House and the Senate Health Committee, pending in Senate Ways & Means.

• Children’s Behavioral Health Workgroup – HB 2256 increases the members, expands the focus, and extends the timeline for the workgroup to support improving access to BH for children and families. Passed the House and the Senate Human Services Committee, pending in Senate Rules.

• Hospital At-Home Services – HB 2295 requires DOH to adopt rules to add hospital at-home services to the services that a licensed acute care hospital may provide and establish standards for the operation of a hospital at-home program. Passed the House and the Senate, awaiting Governor signature.

• County Hospital Funding – HB 2348 authorizes counties to use county money, levy taxes, and issue bonds to pay, finance, or refinance capital expenses related to a county hospital (such as Harborview). Passed the House and scheduled for executive session in Senate Ways & Means.

• Exchange Standardized Health Plans – HB 2361 requires the Exchange to limit the “non-standardized” health plans it offers through Washington Healthplanfinder, ensuring people can more readily find Cascade Care plans that have standardized out-of-pocket cost-sharing levels approved by the state. This bill was weakened coming out of the House Health Committee, but a stronger version passed the House and the Senate Health Committee, pending in Senate Rules.

• WA Cares – Two bills with different eligibility requirements are making their way through the legislature that would allow people who move out of Washington to continue paying premiums into WA Cares, the state’s long term care program. HB 2467 passed the House and Senate Labor Committee, pending in Senate Rules.  SB 6072 passed the Senate and the House Health Committee, scheduled for hearing in House Appropriations. The Seattle Times has background on these bills in the context of the upcoming ballot initiative. 

• Pharmacy Benefit Managers – SB 5213 requires Pharmacy Benefit Managers to register and report to the Insurance Commissioner (separately from other health care benefit managers) and regulates certain aspects of PBM business practices. Passed the Senate and House Health Committee, scheduled for hearing in House Appropriations.

• Keep Our Care Act – SB 5241 gives the Attorney General oversight, compliance and enforcement authority to ensure health care consolidations do not affect access to affordable quality health care. This bill has been a NoHLA priority as part of the Fair Health Prices WA effort, and is a top priority for many consumer organizations this session. Recent amendments have strengthened and refined the bill. Passed the Senate and the House Civil Rights & Judiciary Committee, scheduled for hearing in House Appropriations. 

• Uniform Telemedicine Act – SB 5481 allows a provider to establish a relationship with a patient using telehealth and would set the circumstances when an out-of-state health care provider may use telehealth to provide services to a patient in Washington. Passed the Senate and the House Health Committee, pending in House Rules.

• Prenatal & Perinatal Health Outcomes – SB 5580 expands income eligibility for Apple Health pregnancy/postpartum coverage to 210% of the Federal Poverty Level and improves supportive prenatal and perinatal services. Passed the Senate and the House Health Committee, scheduled for hearing in House Appropriations.

• Mental Health Advance Directive (MHAD) – SB 5660 requires the Health Care Authority (HCA) to create a workgroup to develop recommendations to establish the creation, storage and sharing of MHADs, as well as develop model documents and trainings. Passed the Senate and the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee, scheduled for hearing in House Appropriations.

• Expanding Family Members as Individual Providers. (DSHS request) SB 5811 would expand the list of family members who can serve as an “individual provider” of home-based long-term care services without needing certification. There have been concerns from some caregivers about the continuing education requirements in the bill. Passed the Senate and the House Health Committee, scheduled for hearing in House Appropriations.

• Audio-Only Telemedicine – SB 5821 modifies the definition of “established relationship” related to health plan reimbursement for audio-only telemedicine, creating a uniform standard for both Essential Health Benefits and non-Essential Health Benefits services. Passed the Senate and the House Health Committee, pending in House Rules.

• Guardianship & Conservatorship – SB 5825 requires the Office of Public Guardianship to contract with public or private entities to provide public decision making services for individuals who are currently receiving care in a hospital setting who are ready to discharge and do not have a guardian. The bill also makes changes to the Uniform Guardianship Act. Passed the Senate and the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee, scheduled for hearing in House Appropriations.

• 23-Hour Crisis Facility for Minors – SB 5853 would allow the new 23-hour Crisis Relief Centers to serve children, but only in a separate treatment area and with separate policies/procedures. Passed the Senate and the House Human Services Committee, scheduled for hearing in House Appropriations. 

• Psychiatric Bed Certificate of Need Exemptions – SB 5920 extends Department of Health authority to grant certification of need exemptions related to increasing psychiatric bed capacity until 2028. Passed the Senate and the House Health Committee, pending in Rules.

• Vaccination Definition – (DOH request) SB 5982 updates the definition of vaccination in state law to include all FDA-approved immunizations recommended by the CDC. Passed both the Senate and the House, pending Governor signature.

• Ending Ground Ambulance Balance Billing – SB 5986 bans out-of-network “surprise” bills, aka balance bills, insured people often receive today when ground ambulance services are not in-network. This bill has been a NoHLA priority as part of the Fair Health Prices WA effort. The House Health Committee made positive amendments to address concerns the default payment rate could inadvertently increase consumer costs. Passed the Senate and the House Health Committee, scheduled for hearing in House Appropriations.

• Public Health Standing Orders – (DOH request) SB 6095 allows for DOH to issue a prescription or standing order for a drug or device for the purpose of controlling a threat to public health. Passed the Senate and House Health Committee, pending in House Rules. 

• Behavioral Health Coverage – SB 6228 makes a number of changes related to public and private insurance coverage of substance use disorder treatment (SUD). This  bill was substantially amended coming out of the House Health Committee. Passed the Senate and the House Health Committee, scheduled for hearing in House Appropriations. 

• Universal Health Care – SJM 8006 petitions the federal government to help states create a universal health care system. Passed the Senate and the House Health Committee, pending in Rules.

Here are some of the bills that will not be continuing this session because they did not advance in time for the recent policy committee cut-off, in addition to bills we noted in our last update:

• Mandating Fertility Services – HB 1151 would have required large group state-regulated health plans and state employee plans to cover infertility diagnosis/treatment and standard fertility preservation services.

• Interagency Coordinating Council on Health Disparities – (Request by Interagency Council on Health Disparities) HB 2346 would have made a number of changes to the Governor’s Interagency Coordinating Council on Health Disparities, including changing the vision for the group and membership/structure.

• Reducing the Cost of Epinephrine Autoinjecter Co-Pays – SB 5775 would have limited cost-sharing for prescription epinephrine autoinjectors to $60 for a pack of two.

• Covered Lives Assessment – HB 2476/SB 6309 would have created a new tax on Apple Health managed care and fully-insured individual and group health plan members, with the goal of drawing down federal matching funds to increase Medicaid payment rates for professional services to Medicare levels. It is possible that aspects of this bill will be revived as part of the final budget. 

• Licensing Interpreters and Translators – SB 5995 would have required the Department of Licensing to develop a licensing program for spoken language interpreters and translators. There were questions about whether this bill would have helped address the current medical interpreter shortage in Apple Health and other health care settings. 
• Apple Health Prenatal & Perinatal Quality Metrics – SB 6148 would have required HCA to collect and report on a broader set of maternal and perinatal health quality metrics.