SENATE BILL REPORT

                            HB 1351

  AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON LABOR & COMMERCE, APRIL 2, 1993

Brief Description:  Defining hospital in regard to self‑insurers.

SPONSORS: Representatives Veloria, Heavey, King and Lisk; by request of Department of Labor & Industries

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE & LABOR

SENATE COMMITTEE ON LABOR & COMMERCE

Majority Report:  Do pass. 

     Signed by Senators Moore, Chairman; Prentice, Vice Chairman; Fraser, McAuliffe, Newhouse, Sutherland, and Wojahn.

Staff:  Dave Cheal (786‑7576)

Hearing Dates: April 2, 1993

BACKGROUND:

Under the state industrial insurance system, hospital employees may be covered through one of two self-insurance groups, one for public hospitals and one for private hospitals.  The definition of "hospital" for the purpose of authorizing these groups refers to a statute that was repealed in 1990 with the sunset of the Washington State Hospital Commission.

SUMMARY:

The authority for hospitals to form industrial insurance self-insurance groups is amended by deleting the reference to a repealed definition of "hospital."  A new definition is added that includes hospitals under the hospital licensing statute and hospitals regulated as psychiatric hospitals, but excludes beds used by a comprehensive cancer center for cancer research.  A reference is deleted that limited the self-insurance group for non-public hospitals to not-for-profit hospitals.

Appropriation:  none

Revenue:  none

Fiscal Note:  none requested

TESTIMONY FOR:

The authority of hospitals to form groups to qualify as self-insurers should not be inadvertently compromised by the repeal of an unrelated statute.

TESTIMONY AGAINST:  None

TESTIFIED:  Jody Moran, Department of Labor and Industries