H-1241              _______________________________________________

                                                   HOUSE BILL NO. 2179

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

By Representatives Belcher, Fraser, Cole, R. Fisher and P. King

Read first time 3/1/89 and referred to Committee on Health Care.

AN ACT Relating to state employees' insurance benefit plans; and amending RCW 41.05.075.

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

        Sec. 1.  Section 9, chapter 107, Laws of 1988 and RCW 41.05.075 are each amended to read as follows:

          (1) The administrator shall provide employee benefit plans designed by the board through a contract or contracts with insuring entities, through self-funding, self-insurance, or other methods of providing insurance coverage authorized by RCW 41.05.140.

          (2) The administrator shall establish a contract bidding process that encourages competition among insuring entities, is timely to the state budgetary process, and sets conditions for awarding contracts to any insuring entity.

          (3) The administrator shall establish a requirement for review of utilization and financial data from participating insuring entities on a quarterly basis.

          (4) The administrator shall centralize the enrollment files for all  employee health plans and develop enrollment demographics on a plan-specific basis.

          (5) The administrator shall establish methods for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating to covered individuals information on the cost and quality of services rendered by individual health care providers.

          (6) All claims data shall be the property of the state.  The administrator may require of any insuring entity that submits a bid to contract for coverage all information deemed necessary to fulfill the administrator's duties as set forth in this chapter.

          (7) All contracts with insuring entities for the provision of health care benefits shall provide that the beneficiaries of such benefit plans may use on an equal participation basis the services of practitioners licensed pursuant to chapters 18.22, 18.25, 18.32, 18.53, 18.57, 18.71, 18.74, 18.83, ((and)) 18.88, and 18.108 RCW.  However, nothing in this subsection may preclude the administrator from establishing appropriate utilization controls approved pursuant to RCW 41.05.065 (2)(a)(i), (b), and (d).

          (8) Beginning in January 1990, and each January thereafter, the administrator shall publish and distribute to each school district a description of health care benefit plans available through the authority and the estimated cost if school district employees were enrolled.