AN ACT Relating to establishing maternal and perinatal quality of care metrics for Washingtonians on medicaid; adding a new section to chapter 74.09 RCW; and creating a new section.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The centers for medicaid and medicare services encourages states to voluntarily collect and report on quality measures describing the quality of care that medicaid and children's health insurance program beneficiaries receive. There are nine quality measures related to maternal and perinatal health that the centers for medicaid and medicare services has identified as the maternity core set. The maternity core set is used to measure and evaluate progress toward the improvement of maternal and perinatal health in the medicaid and children's health insurance programs.

(2) Beginning in 2024, the centers for medicaid and medicare services required states to collect and report on six maternal and perinatal health measures. The data collected will provide a national picture of maternal health in the medicaid and children's health insurance programs.

(3) The legislature intends to gather data on the additional three maternal and perinatal health measures to measure and evaluate progress toward improvement of maternal and perinatal health for Washingtonians.

(1) Beginning January 1, 2025, the authority shall collect data and report on all of the quality measures related to maternal and perinatal health that are identified by the centers for medicaid and medicare services as the maternity core set.

(2) By June 30, 2026, and annually thereafter, the authority shall publish the data collected in subsection (1) of this section from the previous calendar year, provide comparative data to the previous year detailing any progress made in improving outcomes, and provide information detailing any steps taken to improve outcomes.