S-4165               _______________________________________________

 

                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 4970

                        _______________________________________________

 

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1986 Regular Session

 

By Senators Warnke and Sellar

 

 

Read first time 1/24/86 and referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.

 

 


AN ACT Relating to contractor payments; and amending RCW 74.46.180.

 

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

 

        Sec. 1.  Section 18, chapter 177, Laws of 1980 as last amended by section 1, chapter 361, Laws of 1985 and RCW 74.46.180 are each amended to read as follows:

          (1) The state shall make payment of any underpayments within thirty days after the date the preliminary or final settlement report is submitted to the contractor.

          (2) A contractor found to have received either overpayments or erroneous payments under a preliminary or final settlement shall refund such payments to the state within thirty days after the date the preliminary or final settlement report is submitted to the contractor, subject to the provisions of subsections (3), (4), and (7) of this section.

          (3) Within the cost centers of nursing services and food, all savings resulting from the respective allowable costs being lower than the respective reimbursement rate paid to the contractor during the report period shall be refunded.  In computing a preliminary or final settlement, savings in a cost center may be shifted to cover a deficit in another cost center up to the amount of any savings:  PROVIDED, That not more than twenty percent of the rate in a cost center may be shifted into that cost center and no shifting may be made into the property cost center.

          (4) Within the cost centers of administration and operations and property, the contractor shall retain at least fifty percent, but not more than seventy-five percent, of any savings resulting from the respective audited allowable costs being lower than the respective reimbursement rates paid to the contractor during the report period multiplied by the number of authorized medical care client days in which said rates were in effect, except that no savings may be retained if reported costs in the property cost center and the administration and operations cost center exceed audited allowable costs by ten cents or more per patient day.  The secretary, by rule and regulation, shall establish the basis for the specific percentages of savings to the contractors.  Such rules and regulations may provide for differences in the percentages allowed for each cost center to individual facilities based on performance measures related to administrative efficiency.

          (5) All allowances provided by RCW 74.46.530 shall be retained by the contractor.  Any industrial insurance dividend or premium discount under RCW 51.16.035 shall be retained by the contractor ((to the extent that such dividend or premium discount is attributable to the contractor's private patients)).

          (6) In the event the contractor fails to make repayment in the time provided in subsection (2) of this section, the department shall either:

          (a) Deduct the amount of refund due plus assessment of interest, as determined by the secretary, from payment amounts due the contractor; or

          (b) In the instance the contract has been terminated, (i) deduct the amount of refund due plus an assessment of interest, determined by the secretary, from any payments due; or (ii) assess the amount due plus interest, as determined by the secretary, on the amount due.

          (7) Where the facility is pursuing timely-filed judicial or administrative remedies in good faith regarding settlement issues, the contractor need not refund nor shall the department withhold from the facility current payment amounts the department claims to be due from the facility but which are specifically disputed by the contractor.  If the judicial or administrative remedy sought by the facility is not granted after all appeals are exhausted or mutually terminated, the facility shall make payment of such amounts due plus interest accrued from the date of filing of the appeal, as payable on judgments, within sixty days of the date such decision is made.