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 The definition of "hospital" for the purpose of authorizing these groups refers to a statute that was repealed in 1990 with the sunset of the Washington State Hospital Commission.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authority for hospitals to form industrial insurance self-insurance groups is amended by deleting the reference to a repealed definition of "hospital."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