H-1893.1                  _______________________________________________

                                             SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1574

                              _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              53rd Legislature                             1993 Regular Session

By House Committee on Human Services (originally sponsored by Representatives Leonard, Brown, King, Wineberry, Flemming, Wood, Romero, G. Cole, Riley, Locke, Anderson, Appelwick, Rust, Orr, Karahalios, Quall, Jacobsen, Thibaudeau, Johanson and J. Kohl)

Read first time 03/01/93.

Changing vendor rates for children's services providers.

          AN ACT Relating to vendor rates for service providers who care for children; adding a new section to chapter 74.32 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  The legislature finds that individuals and organizations serving children out of the child's home are an important part of a continuum of care for children who are removed from abusive and dysfunctional homes.  The legislature further finds that a significant reduction in the number of service providers and high provider turnover has occurred in  the past ten years.  Since 1980, the number of group home beds has declined from one thousand seven hundred to fewer than four hundred in 1992.  Out-of-home care service providers currently receive state reimbursement of between twenty and sixty-five percent of the cost of caring for dependent children.  If reimbursement rates to these service providers are not increased to the full cost of providing care, further reductions in children's service providers will occur, exacerbating an already unacceptable situation.  The governor's advisory committee on vendor rates is required to analyze vendor rates for human services providers and recommend adequate vendor rates to the governor and the legislature.  The governor's advisory committee has not met for several years.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 74.32 RCW to read as follows:

          The governor's committee on vendor rates, established by RCW 74.32.100,  shall analyze vendor rates for nonprofit, licensed, group care providers, foster parents, crisis residential centers, private adoption agencies and foster care agencies providing case management, recruitment, training, and support services and determine the actual cost of providing these services.  The information shall be published annually, sixty days prior to the convening of the regularly scheduled legislative session.

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