Health Care and the 2005 Legislature

1. Health Care and the 2005 Legislature Rep. Jeannie Darneille June 3, 2005

2. Focus on – Mental Health • Mental Health Parity -- HB 1154 • By 2010, group health insurance plans that cover 50 or more people must have full parity between mental health and medical/surgical benefits. • Beginning 2006, parity in co-payments, coinsurance and prescription drug coverage. • Beginning 2008, parity in maximum out of pocket or stop loss coverage. • Beginning in 2010, single deductible for medical, surgical and mental health services.

3. Focus on – Mental Health • Community Mental Health Services • Restores $80 million of $82 million in lost federal funding used to serve people not eligible for Medicaid and to provide services not covered by Medicaid. • $10 million dedicated to services for mentally ill offenders in city or county jails, and to linking offenders with Medicaid upon release from jail. • $4.5 million is provided to increase access to mental health services for youth. • $6.6 million is provided for increased community hospital inpatient psych rates.

4. Focus on – Mental Health and Chemical Dependency • HB 1290 and SB 5763 – Improving the mental health and chemical dependency delivery systems to focus on recovery, evidence-based practice and accountability • Increased funding for chemical dependency treatment -- $40 million in new funding to treat low income youth and adults. • Improved services for people with both mental health and chemical dependency problems.

5. Focus on – Children’s Health • HB 1441 -- The Children’s Health Program will serve poor children whose immigration status makes them ineligible for Medicaid. • $10.3 million is provided to serve about 9,000 children. • Returning Medicaid eligibility reviews to a 12 month cycle will result in about 25,000 low income children keeping their Medicaid coverage.

6. Focus on – Public Health • Local public health backfill -- $48 million • A Joint Select Committee on Public Health Financing will review and recommend funding sources for public health services. • Recommendations are due July 1, 2006. • The committee will collaborate with counties, local public health, and the State Board of Health. • 60 cent per pack increase in the cigarette tax.

7. Focus on – Public Health • SB 5841 – Asthma prevention and treatment • Policies for school staff training, asthma rescue procedures, and authorization for students to self-administer meds under defined conditions. • Health Care Authority is to issue a status report in 2007 and 2009 summarizing results in coordinating state agency disease and demand management strategies for asthma and other chronic diseases. • The Department of Health will design a state asthma plan by December 1, 2005, and implement the plan to the extent funds are available.

8. Focus on – Public Health • SB 5186 – Physical activity • Goal -- To promote statewide policy and planning efforts that increase access to inexpensive or free opportunities for regular exercise in all communities through: • Local land use planning; • OSPI promotion of school-based curricula and policies that increase physical activity for students; and • State employee work site health promotion programs.

9. Focus on – Public Health • SB 5898 – Postpartum depression • The Council for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect will conduct a public information and outreach campaign about the significance, signs, and treatment of postpartum depression.

10. Focus on – Prescription Drugs • SB 5471 – Prescription drug purchasing consortium • Local governments, private businesses, unions and uninsured people will be able to purchase prescription drugs through the state’s consolidated evidence-based prescription drug purchasing program.

11. Focus on – Prescription Drugs • Prescription drug reimportation • SB 5470 – The state will seek an FDA waiver allowing us to reimport from wholesalers in Canada, Britain or other nations for sale through Washington State pharmacies. • HB 1168 – The state Board of Pharmacy is authorized to license Canadian mail order pharmacies using Washington state licensing standards.

12. Focus on – Long term care • $64 million is provided to increase home care worker wages. • HB 1220 – A Long Term Care Task Force will develop recommendations in 2007 about: • Public and private financing mechanisms; • Disability prevention interventions and chronic care management that can reduce the need for long-term care; and • The need to add additional capacity to the system and review laws and rules for possible elimination.

13. Focus on – Child Abuse and Neglect • SB 5922 – Child neglect • DSHS will be able to intervene where there is a pattern of child neglect by a parent. • A parent’s substance abuse – and willingness to participate in drug treatment – will be considered when determining whether maltreatment has occurred, and in dependency proceedings. • $5 million is provided to fund this legislation.

14. Focus on – Child Abuse and Neglect • $14.5 million is provided for: • CPS workers to investigate emergent child abuse cases within 24 hours, and non-emergent cases within 72 hours for accepted referrals. • DSHS child welfare workers to have face-to-face contact with children, parents or other caregivers in the child welfare system every 30 days. • $1.8 million is provided to expand the parent representation project in dependency and parental rights termination cases.

15. Focus on – Juvenile Justice • Reinvesting in Youth program -- The budget includes almost $1 million for a 2 year, 3 county pilot project. • The project will develop methods to reinvest state savings that result from local government investments in proven early intervention services that target juvenile justice involved youth and reduce crime by those youth.

16. Tobacco prevention and cessation • Despite good efforts by advocates, the following tobacco related legislation did not pass: • HB 2038 & SB 5592 -- to prohibit smoking in all public places and allow local government to adopt more restrictive ordinances. • SB 5048 -- Tobacco products sampling. Distributing tobacco product samples to members of the public would be prohibited. Violation of this prohibition would be a misdemeanor.

17. Medical malpractice • HB 2292 – An alternative to Initiative 330 (WSMA) and Initiative 336 (WSTLA) passed the House of Representatives, but not the Senate. The alternative addressed: • Increasing patient safety and reducing medical errors; • Medical malpractice insurance reform; and • Civil liability reform