BP BHEAD INT S [atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to creating an emergency response fund for outbreaks of communicable disease and tuberculosis detention; adding new sections to chapter 43.70 RCW; creating new sections; and making appropriations.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that the number of communicable disease outbreaks is increasing in size, frequency, and variety of disease. These outbreaks often strain the resources of local health jurisdictions to both meet the costs of controlling the specific outbreak as well as continuing to perform their other vital responsibilities. The legislature also finds that new, drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are developing across the country requiring lengthy and sometimes expensive treatment regimens. In rare cases, the person contracting the disease refuses treatment and must be involuntarily detained to protect the safety of the surrounding community. These cases can also cause extraordinary expense to local health jurisdictions who lack suitable detention facilities at the local level and who have been forced to utilize expensive and already overcrowded local jails and state institutions. The legislature intends to create an emergency fund to assist local health jurisdictions in meeting the extraordinary costs of both communicable disease outbreaks and tuberculosis detentions.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. The communicable disease/tuberculosis detention emergency account is created in the custody of the state treasurer. All receipts from legislative appropriations designated for this account must be deposited into the account. Expenditures from the account may be used only for the purpose of funding the program created in sections 3 through 5 and 7 of this act. Only the secretary of health or the secretary's designee may authorize expenditures from the account. The account is subject to allotment procedures under chapter 43.88 RCW, but an appropriation is not required for expenditures.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The department shall provide funds from the communicable disease/tuberculosis detention emergency account created under section 2 of this act to meet the extraordinary expenses of local health jurisdictions in meeting the costs of communicable disease outbreaks and tuberculosis detentions when the outbreaks or detentions exceed a set of criteria established by section 4 of this act and by the department, in consultation with local public health departments, interested representatives of the health care committees in the senate and house of representatives, not to exceed one member of each major party, and the office of financial management.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. The established criteria for the expenditure of funds appropriated for either communicable disease outbreaks, or tuberculosis detentions, or both includes the following factors:

(1) There is an outbreak of a communicable disease of public health significance at a rate substantially higher than the usual rate for the jurisdiction with the rate calculated as cases of illness per one hundred thousand population during a defined period of time or other defined public health emergency. The economic ability of the county or counties to meet the extraordinary cost shall be included in the analysis;

(2) A local match not to exceed twenty-five percent in cash or in kind;

(3) Whether the impacted jurisdiction can demonstrate that continued expenditure of local funds will jeopardize its ability to continue its statutorily mandated responsibilities to protect the public health and safety of the community;

(4) Whether the local jurisdiction has explored other funding options, including the transfer of equipment, personnel, or material from other local jurisdictions or the department and exhausted those options;

(5) In regard to tuberculosis detention, the cost exceeds by a factor of two the average annual per capita expenditure for tuberculosis in the state;

(6) Whether the local board of health has made a declaration of the existence of an emergency; and

(7) The amount of money spent, and money remaining, to provide funds to local health jurisdictions from the communicable disease/tuberculosis detention emergency account created in section 2 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. The final criteria shall be completed no later than six months following the effective date of this section, or December 31, 1999, whichever is sooner.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. The department, in consultation with local health jurisdictions, shall develop rules for the process to be followed in disbursing funds from the communicable disease/tuberculosis detention emergency account created in section 2 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. Each local health jurisdiction utilizing funds from the communicable disease/tuberculosis detention emergency account created in section 2 of this act shall provide a report of the expenditures to the department for inclusion in a yearly report to the appropriate health care committees of the legislature and the office of financial management.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. (1) The sum of six hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2000, from the general fund to the communicable disease/tuberculosis detention emergency account created in section 2 of this act for the purposes of this act.

(2) The sum of six hundred thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2001, from the general fund to the communicable disease/tuberculosis detention emergency account created in section 2 of this act for the purposes of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 9. Sections 2 through 5 and 7 of this act are each added to chapter 43.70 RCW.