This week is light on hearings for our bills, but we expect that to change shortly, with many of WSHA's issues coming up in House and Senate committees. Among the issues that will be coming are nurse staffing requirements and the use of noncompete clauses when recruiting physicians.... Read More >>

WSHA testified at House Health Care & Wellness Committee's hearing last Wednesday on the Office of the Insurance Commissioner's proposed legislation on balance billing (HB 1117).... Read More >>

Proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act will have a significant impact on hospitals and communities. We would like to invite you to a webcast.... Read More >>

As expected, the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) has submitted legislation (HB 1117) to protect patients from receiving balanced bills. The legislation is aimed at protecting patients who use an in-network hospital but then receive an additional "balance" bill from an out-of-network provider for care during the stay. This typically arises when a health plan has failed to reach a network contract agreement with some of the providers practicing at the facility, such as ER, anesthesiology, pathology, and radiology groups.... Read More >>

Today, Governor Jay Inslee released his proposed budget for the 2017-2019 biennium. As has generally been the case in recent years, increased revenues from improving economic conditions are being subsumed by multi-billion dollar, court-ordered funding requirements for basic education. Expansion and reform of the state behavioral health system is a high funding priority, one which WSHA strongly supports.... Read More >>

The Washington State Legislature has reached agreement on a supplemental budget, meaning the legislature can soon conclude its special session. Overall, WSHA is very pleased with the results of the 2016 state legislative session. The budget is very good for hospitals and health systems, provides significant new funding for mental health and makes no significant cuts to hospitals or health care. Additionally, important funding was provided to implement many of the WSHA-supported policy bills.... Read More >>

Friday was the cutoff for most bills to be considered in the opposite house, and we are now heading into the final stretch of this year’s short legislative session. We are happy to report that many of the significant bills WSHA supports made it through both the House and Senate, and are now headed to the governor for his action. Several other bills WSHA supports are awaiting concurrence between the House and Senate.... Read More >>

The State Senate released its proposal for the 2016 supplemental budget today. The Senate takes a significantly different approach than the House to its budget proposal, making more cuts than the House did and leaving a much larger balance in the budget stabilization account. In addition, the Senate spends less.... Read More >>

In addition to the operating budget, the House and Senate capital budgets were both released today. WSHA’s interest in the capital budget is in the area of funding for new mental health facilities. WSHA is very pleased both the House and Senate capital budget contain significant new dollars for construction costs of mental health facilities.... Read More >>

We are very thankful for everyone who comes to Olympia to testify! Your testimony is essential for helping legislators and the public to understand the real impact of proposed legislation. Last week, we were pleased to have testimony from Cheryl Pell, RPh, from Medication Review, Inc.... Read More >>