Subject of Possible Rule Making: WAC 246-843-990 Nursing home administrator fees and renewal cycle, 246-810-990 Counselors fees and renewal cycle (hypnotherapists and certified counselors), and 246-849-990 Ocularist fees and renewal cycle. The department of health (department) is opening the listed sections of WAC to consider updates to fees for the specified professions, as well as to ensure clarity and consistency of fees that are standard across all professions.

Reasons Why Rules on this Subject may be Needed and What They Might Accomplish: RCW 43.70.250 requires that the costs of licensing each profession be fully borne by the members of that profession. In addition, the state auditor's office published their performance audit report, "Aligning Healthcare Professional Fees with Licensing Costs," in November 2018, to examine if the department aligns the fees it charges to healthcare professions with the cost of licensing. In response, the department is developing a process to review fees more consistently and enhance transparency of fund balances and fee-setting.

Rule making is needed for nursing home administrator, hypnotherapist, certified counselor, and ocularist professions to ensure the department is in line with RCW 43.70.250 and the fees set are sufficient to cover the costs of licensing the profession. The department may also consider technical updates to fees that could create more clarity and consistency across professions, such as aligning late renewal, duplicate license, and verification fees with agency standards.

Other Federal and State Agencies that Regulate this Subject and the Process Coordinating the Rule with These Agencies: Not applicable.

Interested parties can participate in the decision to adopt the new rule and formulation of the proposed rule before publication by contacting Cori Tarzwell, P.O. Box 47850, Olympia, WA 98540-7850, phone 360-236-4981, TTY 360-833-6388 or 711, email HSQAfeerules@doh.wa.gov.

Additional comments: Interested parties may also join the GovDelivery email list for one of the specified professions to receive notifications on this rule making. Parties can join GovDelivery at this link https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/WADOH/subscriber/new.