AN ACT Relating to maternity care; amending RCW 74.09.510; adding new sections to chapter 74.09 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. This act may be known and cited as the "maternity care access act of 1989."

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) The legislature finds that Washington state and the nation as a whole have a high rate of infant illness and death compared with other industrialized nations. This is especially true for minority and low- income populations. Premature and low weight births have been directly linked to infant illness and death. The availability of adequate maternity care throughout the course of pregnancy has been identified as a major factor in reducing infant illness and death. Further, the investment in preventive health care programs, such as maternity care, contributes to the growth of a healthy and productive society and is a sound approach to health care cost containment. The legislature further finds that access to maternity care for low-income women in the state of Washington has declined significantly in recent years and has reached a crisis level.

(2) It is the purpose of this chapter to provide, consistent with appropriated funds, maternity care necessary to provide for healthy births for low-income families. To this end, a maternity care access system is established based on the following principles:

(a) The family is the fundamental unit in our society and should be supported through public policy.

(b) Access to maternity care for eligible persons should be made readily available in an expeditious manner through a single service entry point.

(d) Access to preventive and other health care services should be available for low-income children.

(e) Each woman should be encouraged to and assisted in making her own informed decisions about her maternity care.

(f) Unnecessary barriers to the provision of maternity care by qualified health professionals should be removed.

(g) The system should be sensitive to cultural differences among eligible persons.

(h) To the extent possible, decisions about the scope, content, and delivery of services should be made at the local level involving a broad representation of community interests.

(i) The maternity care access system should be evaluated at appropriate intervals to determine effectiveness and need for modification.

(j) Maternity care services should be delivered in a cost-effective manner.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The legislature reserves the right to amend or repeal all or any part of this chapter at any time and there shall be no vested private right of any kind against such amendment or repeal. All rights, privileges, or immunities conferred by this chapter or any acts done pursuant thereto shall exist subject to the power of the legislature to amend or repeal this chapter at any time.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout sections 1 through 8 of this act:

(1) "At-risk eligible person" means an eligible person determined by the department to need special assistance in applying for and obtaining maternity care, including pregnant women who are substance abusers, pregnant and parenting adolescents, pregnant minority women, and other eligible persons who need special assistance in gaining access to the maternity care system.

(2) "County authority" means the board of county commissioners, county council, or county executive having the authority to participate in the maternity care access program or its designee. Two or more county authorities may enter into joint agreements to fulfill the requirements of this chapter.

(3) "Department" means the department of social and health services.

(4) "Eligible person" means a woman in need of maternity care or a child, who is eligible for medical assistance pursuant to chapter 74.09 RCW or the prenatal care program administered by the department.

(5) "Maternity care services" means inpatient and outpatient medical care, case management, and support services necessary during prenatal, delivery, and postpartum periods.

(6) "Support services" means, at least, health education, outreach services, clinical services provided by a nonphysician practitioner who is supervised by a physician, nutritional counseling, needed vitamin and nonprescriptive drugs, alcohol and substance abuse treatment for pregnant women who are addicted or at risk of being addicted to alcohol or substance abuse, transportation, and child care.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. In an effort to provide for healthy births, the department shall, consistent with the state budget act, develop a maternity care access program as follows:

(1) Maximize federal financial participation for maternity care and support services to eligible persons under the medical assistance program, Title XIX of the federal social security act;

(2) Improve access to maternity care and simplify the medical assistance application process by:

(a) Stationing department staff in locations convenient to pregnant women who may seek medical assistance, such as local health departments, community health clinics, and other appropriate nonprofit social service agencies. Workers shall be authorized to receive medical assistance applications and determine eligibility expeditiously; and

(b) Implementing the presumptive eligibility provisions set forth in section 9407 of the federal omnibus budget reconciliation act of 1986, on a pilot project basis in two rural and two urban sites that have had extensive problems in providing maternity care to eligible persons. The department may consider other factors in determining the sites, including types of facilities, types of providers, and types of service delivery methods used. The department shall conduct an evaluation of the effectiveness of the pilot project based on the principles set forth in section 2 of this act. If the evaluation indicates that the presumptive eligibility program has been effective, it is the intent of the legislature to implement the program on a state-wide basis beginning July 1, 1991;

(3) Establish a maternity care case management system that shall assist at-risk eligible persons with obtaining medical assistance benefits and receiving maternity care services;

(4) Set resource eligibility standards consistent with Title XIX of the federal social security act;

(5) Establish appropriate reimbursement levels for maternity care providers; and

(6) Implement a broad-based public education program that stresses the importance of obtaining maternity care early during pregnancy.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. (1) The department shall establish an alternative maternity care service delivery system, if it determines that a county or a group of counties is a maternity care distressed area. A maternity care distressed area shall be defined by the department, in rule, as a county or a group of counties where eligible women are unable to obtain adequate maternity care. The department shall include the following factors in its determination:

(a) Higher than average percentage of eligible persons in the distressed area who go out of the area to receive maternity care;

(b) Lower than average percentage of obstetrical care providers in the area who provide care to eligible persons;

(d) Higher than average percentage of infants that are of low birth weight, five and one-half pounds or two thousand five hundred grams, born to eligible persons in the area.

(2) If the department determines that a maternity care distressed area exists, it shall notify the relevant county authority. The county authority shall, within sixty days, submit a brief report to the department recommending remedial action. The report shall be prepared in consultation with health care providers, hospitals, the business community, labor, and low-income advocates in the distressed area. A county authority may contract with a local nonprofit entity to develop the report. If the county authority is unwilling or unable to develop the report, it shall notify the department within thirty days, and the department shall develop the report for the distressed area.

(3) The department shall review the report and use it to the extent possible in developing strategies to improve maternity care access in the distressed area. The department may contract with or directly employ qualified maternity care health providers to provide maternity care services, if access to such providers in the distressed area is not possible by other means. In such cases, the department is authorized to pay that portion of the health care providers' malpractice liability insurance that represents the percentage of maternity care provided to eligible persons by that provider through increased medical assistance payments.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. To the extent that federal matching funds are available, the department or the department of health if one is created shall, in consultation with the health science programs of the state's colleges and universities, establish a loan repayment program that will encourage maternity care providers to practice in medically underserved areas in exchange for repayment of part or all of their health education loans.

Sec. 8. Section 4, chapter 30, Laws of 1967 ex. sess. as last amended by section 2, chapter 5, Laws of 1985 and RCW 74.09.510 are each amended to read as follows:

Medical assistance may be provided in accordance with eligibility requirements established by the department of social and health services, including the prohibition under RCW 74.09.532 through 74.09.536 against the knowing and willful assignment of property or cash for the purpose of qualifying for such assistance, as defined in the social security Title XIX state plan for mandatory categorically needy persons and: (1) Individuals who would be eligible for cash assistance except for their institutional status; (2) individuals who are under twenty-one years of age, who would be eligible for aid to families with dependent children, but do not qualify as dependent children and who are in (a) foster care, (b) subsidized adoption, (c) an intermediate care facility or an intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded, or (d) inpatient psychiatric facilities; (3) the aged, blind, and disabled who: (a) Receive only a state supplement, or (b) would not be eligible for cash assistance if they were not institutionalized; (4) individuals who would be eligible for but choose not to receive cash assistance; (5) ((pregnant women who would be eligible for aid to families with dependent children if the child had been born and was living with the mother during the month of the payment, and the pregnancy has been medically verified; (6))) individuals who are enrolled in managed health care systems, who have otherwise lost eligibility for medical assistance, but who have not completed a current six-month enrollment in a managed health care system, and who are eligible for federal financial participation under Title XIX of the social security act; (6) children and pregnant women allowed by federal statute for whom funding is appropriated; and (7) other individuals eligible for medical services under RCW 74.09.035 and 74.09.700 for whom federal financial participation is available under Title XIX of the social security act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. The department shall contract with an independent nonprofit entity to evaluate the effectiveness of the maternity care access program set forth in sections 1 through 7 of this act based on the principles set forth in section 2 of this act. The evaluation shall also address:

(1) Characteristics of women receiving services, including health risk factors;

(2) Services utilized by eligible women;

(3) Birth outcomes of women receiving services;

(4) Birth outcomes of women receiving services, by type of practitioner; and

(5) Services utilized by eligible infants.

The department shall submit an evaluation report to the appropriate committees of the legislature by December 1, 1990.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 10. Sections 1 through 7 of this act shall be added to chapter 74.09 RCW and codified with the subchapter heading of "maternity care access program."