EMERGENCY RULES
SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES
(Medicaid Purchasing Administration)
Effective Date of Rule: April 28, 2011.
Purpose: Upon order of the governor, the medicaid purchasing administration (MPA) must reduce its budget expenditures for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, by 6.3 percent. To achieve this expenditure reduction, MPA is eliminating optional medical services from program benefit packages for clients twenty-one years of age and older. These medical services include vision, hearing, and dental. Chapter 388-531 WAC is being amended to include medical services previously listed in the programs to be eliminated that are necessary to, and included within, appropriate mandatory medical services under federal statutes and rules.
Citation of Existing Rules Affected by this Order: Amending WAC 388-531-0100, 388-531-0150, 388-531-0200, 388-531-0250, 388-531-0400, 388-531-1000, and 388-531-1300.
Statutory Authority for Adoption: RCW 74.08.090.
Other Authority: Section 209(1), chapter 37, Laws of 2010 (ESSB 6444).
Under RCW 34.05.350 the agency for good cause finds that immediate adoption, amendment, or repeal of a rule is necessary for the preservation of the public health, safety, or general welfare, and that observing the time requirements of notice and opportunity to comment upon adoption of a permanent rule would be contrary to the public interest; that state or federal law or federal rule or a federal deadline for state receipt of federal funds requires immediate adoption of a rule; and that in order to implement the requirements or reductions in appropriations enacted in any budget for fiscal years 2009, 2010, or 2011, which necessitates the need for the immediate adoption, amendment, or repeal of a rule, and that observing the time requirements of notice and opportunity to comment upon adoption of a permanent rule would be contrary to the fiscal needs or requirements of the agency.
Reasons for this Finding: Governor Gregoire issued Executive Order 10-04 on September 13, 2010, under the authority of RCW 43.88.110(7). In the executive order, the governor required DSHS and all other state agencies to reduce their expenditures in state fiscal year 2011 by approximately 6.3 percent. As a consequence of the executive order, funding is no longer available as of January 1, 2011, for the benefits that are being eliminated as part of these regulatory amendments. Delaying the adoption of these cuts to optional services could jeopardize the state's ability to maintain the mandatory medicaid services for the majority of DSHS clients. This emergency rule is necessary to continue the current emergency rule adopted under WSR 11-02-027 while the permanent rule-making process is completed. MPA has filed a CR-101 under WSR 10-20-160 to begin the permanent rule-making process and anticipates filing the CR-102 in May 2011.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's Own Initiative: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 2, Amended 7, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted Using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 2, Amended 7, Repealed 0.
Date Adopted: April 19, 2011.
Katherine I. Vasquez
Rules Coordinator
Reviser's note: The material contained in this filing exceeded the page-count limitations of WAC 1-21-040 for appearance in this issue of the Register. It will appear in the 11-11 issue of the Register.