2020 WSHA Legislative Summary now available

While the 2020 short session may have started in a typical fashion, it certainly did not conclude quietly. When focus turned to emergency funding for the COVID-19 response, WSHA successfully advocated for $19.5 million allocated to the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to discharge patients to long-term care settings and $2 million in emergency funds for rural hospitals. Prior to the emphasis on COVID legislation, WSHA ran one of our most proactive legislative agendas in recent memory. We secured funding to establish two pilot programs to fund partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient services for youth on Medicaid, and, after seven years of WSHA’s advocacy, the Legislature finally passed telemedicine payment parity legislation. This is far from the extent of our work in the 2020 legislative session – we encourage you to learn more in the 2020 WSHA Legislative Summary & Policy Preview!