BILL REQ. #:  S-3517.1 

Read first time 01/12/2004.   Referred to Committee on Commerce & Trade.

     AN ACT Relating to providing interdistrict health benefits for educational employees; and amending RCW 28A.400.275.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 28A.400.275 and 1990 1st ex.s. c 11 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Any contract for employee benefits executed after April 13, 1990, between a school district and a benefit provider or employee bargaining unit is null and void unless it contains an agreement to abide by state laws relating to school district employee benefits. The term of the contract may not exceed one year.
     (2) School districts shall annually submit to the Washington state health care authority summary descriptions of all benefits offered under the district's employee benefit plan. The districts shall also submit data to the health care authority specifying the total number of employees and, for each employee, types of coverage or benefits received including numbers of covered dependents, the number of eligible dependents, the amount of the district's contribution, additional premium costs paid by the employee through payroll deductions, and the age and sex of the employee and each dependent. The plan descriptions and the data shall be submitted in a format and according to a schedule established by the health care authority.
     (3) Any benefit provider offering a benefit plan by contract with a school district under subsection (1) of this section shall agree to make available to the school district the benefit plan descriptions and, where available, the demographic information on plan subscribers that the district is required to report to the Washington state health care authority under this section.
     (4) Beginning with contracts negotiated after the effective date of this section, school districts may provide for interdistrict health benefits that provide that spouses employed in different school districts receive benefits at the same rate as spouses employed in a single school district.
     (5) This section shall not apply to benefit plans offered in the 1989-90 school year.