A new law, Senate Bill 5377, enacted during the 2021 Washington State legislative session, requires hospitals that receive a valid offer from a public option plan to contract with at least one public option plan for the 2023 plan year. Contracting for these plans is underway now, so we recommend hospitals consider the requirement as they receive offers from insurers to contract. These public option plans will generally be identified as “Cascade Care Select” plans.
WSHA is actively involved in the rulemaking process to ensure hospitals are considered compliant with the law if they contract with at least one public option plan. More information on the requirement and rulemaking is in our recent Bulletin. (Andrew Busz, AndrewB@wsha.org).
