Legislative Session Week 12

In this week’s update:

• Staffing Bill Progresses
• Rest Breaks Bill Dies
• School Nurse Supervision Bills
• House Budget

WSNA’s 2017 Legislative Priorities and issue-based one-pagers can be found here.

The Staffing bill (HB 1714) will be heard in the Senate Ways & Means Committee this afternoon. Melissa Johnson, WSNA Contract Lobbyist, is testifying on behalf of WSNA and the hospital association will also testify.

The Rest Breaks bill (HB 1715) was not voted on by the Senate Commerce, Labor & Sports Committee and the bill is now dead for this session. Thank you to everyone who contacted their legislators about the Rest Breaks bill – we look forward to continuing the conversation with legislators post-session about why this bill is important to nurses and patients.

The Senate bill (SB 5325) passed out of the House Education Committee this week, and it was amended to match the House. The bill is now in the Rules Committee, waiting to be pulled to the House floor. The House bill (HB 1346) is in the Senate Rules Committee.

The House Democratic Caucus in the Washington State House of Representatives released its 2017-19 budget proposal last Monday. Their budget puts $7.1 billion over the next four years into K-12 Education, the state’s paramount duty per the Washington State Supreme Court’s McCleary decision. The House budget includes $428 million in health care investments and $350 million in mental health investments.

The House budget adds $40 million in new funding to support our state’s public health system, which is struggling to adequately prevent, monitor, and respond to disease outbreaks. It maintains the Health Profession Loan Repayment program and school nurse funding at current levels.

Included with the House budget is a $3 billion revenue package that takes steps to fix the state tax code.

The House Appropriations Committee held a public hearing on the proposed budget on Monday, and WSNA and SNOW testified on their respective budget priorities.

Click here to see the School Nurse Funding Testimony – panel starts at 58:19 and ends at 1:01:50

After the House passes its budget, the House and Senate will have until the end of the regular session on April 23 to negotiate a final budget. If they have not reached agreement on a compromise budget by the last day of session, the Governor can call the legislature into a 30-day special session.

House Budget: WSNA Budget Priorities

Public Health Funding: $40M
The House budget includes $40 million in new funding for Foundational Public Health Services – with $36 million going to local health jurisdictions and $4 million going to the State Department of Health. This new funding is to help state and local health departments improve their ability to address communicable disease monitoring and prevention and chronic disease and injury prevention.

Click here to see the Public Health Funding Testimony - panel starts at 2:38:59 and ends at 2:46:00

Health Profession Loan Repayment Program: Maintenance Level
The House budget maintain current level funding for the Health Profession Loan Repayment program.

School Nurse Funding: Maintenance Level
The House budget maintains current level funding for school nurses and the School Nurse Corps.

State Department of Health Budget

Lead Directive - $5.9M

Funding in the amount of $2.39 million is provided for screening, case management, and an electronic data reporting system to identify and track children who are at the highest risk of having elevated levels of lead in their blood. Funding in the amount of $3.49 million is provided to test water fixtures in schools across the state, with an emphasis on testing older schools first.

Prescription Monitoring Program - $0
Pursuant to Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1426 (Rx monitoring program data), FTEs are provided for the Department of Health (DOH) to expand the access to and expand the permissible uses of data from the prescription monitoring program and funding is authorized pursuant to a memorandum of understanding between DOH and the Health Care Authority.

Language of Public Notices - $976,000
Pursuant to Second Substitute House Bill 1540 (language of public notices), funding is provided for state agencies and emergency management departments to provide health and safety-related notices and communications in languages other than English or in a manner that non-English speaking persons can understand.

Suicide Prevention - $700,000
Funding is provided to the Department of Health to increase capacity to respond to calls to the suicide prevention hotline using existing contracts for crisis lines.

Hepatitis C Treatment Costs - $173.3M

Funding is provided to expand treatment for Hepatitis C virus (HCV) to Medicaid clients with less severe liver disease whose coverage has been mandated by court order. This will extend HCV treatment to approximately 6,000 additional Medicaid patients with less severe liver disease. About $40M of this is State General Fund, and the rest is paid for through Medicaid.

Nurse Case Managers - $1.9M
Funding is provided to hire 10 nurse case managers to coordinate medically assisted treatment and movement to medical homes for those being treated for opioid use disorder.

Children’s Mental Health - $1.098M
Funding is provided for annual depression screenings for children ages 12-18 and mothers with children 0-6 months old pursuant to Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1713 (Children's Mental Health).

Prescription Drug Cost Transparency

Funding is provided to contract with a data organization to implement Second Substitute House Bill 1541 (prescription drug cost transparency), which among other provisions, requires the Office of Financial Management to contract with a data organization to collect, verify, and summarize the prescription drug cost pricing data provided by issuers and manufacturers.