CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT

                        SENATE BILL 5211

                        55th Legislature

                      1997 Regular Session

Passed by the Senate March 17, 1997   YEAS 47   NAYS 0 President of the Senate Passed by the House April 8, 1997   YEAS 97   NAYS 0

CERTIFICATE I, Mike O=Connell, Secretary of the Senate of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is  SENATE BILL 5211 as passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on the dates hereon set forth.

Speaker of the       House of Representatives

Secretary

Approved Place Style On Codes above, and Style Off Codes below.

FILED

Governor of the State of Washington

Secretary of State                   State of Washington

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                         SENATE BILL 5211

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             Passed Legislature - 1997 Regular Session

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1997 Regular Session

By Senators Newhouse, Wojahn and Schow

Read first time 01/20/97.  Referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.

Authorizing public hospital districts to be self-insurers.

    AN ACT Relating to including public hospital districts as authorized self-insurers; and amending RCW 51.14.150.

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

    Sec. 1.  RCW 51.14.150 and 1993 c 158 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

    (1) For the purposes of this section, "hospital" means a hospital as defined in RCW 70.41.020(2) or a psychiatric hospital regulated under chapter 71.12 RCW, but does not include beds utilized by a comprehensive cancer center for cancer research.

    (2)(a) Any two or more employers which are school districts or educational service districts, or (b) any two or more employers which are public hospital districts or hospitals, and are owned or operated by a state agency or municipal corporation of this state, or (c) any two or more employers which are hospitals, no one of which is owned or operated by a state agency or municipal corporation of this state, may enter into agreements to form self-insurance groups for the purposes of this chapter.

    (3) No more than one group may be formed under subsection (2)(b) of this section and no more than one group may be formed under subsection (2)(c) of this section.

    (4) The self-insurance groups shall be organized and operated under  rules promulgated by the director under RCW 51.14.160.  Such a self-insurance group shall be deemed an employer for the purposes of this chapter, and may qualify as a self-insurer if it meets all the other requirements of this chapter.

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