BILL REQ. #:  S-4387.1 

Read first time 01/18/08.   Referred to Committee on Health & Long-Term Care.

     AN ACT Relating to creating a health care work group; adding a new section to chapter 70.38 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that a private-public partnership is required to bring health care costs under control and to improve the quality of care that is delivered to residents of this state.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 70.38 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) A standing work group is established to develop, with local and national experts on health care quality data collection and management, an accessible secure internet-based format of reliable, state of the art, evidence-based, and accurate information that will enable each resident in the state, regardless of where he or she lives, to access and understand his or her health care records and the quality of performance of the provider from whom he or she is receiving or seeking care and how he or she can use this information to improve his or her personal health and to improve the outcome of the care that he or she receives. The web site will also help providers operate more efficiently and deliver high quality care at lower costs.
     (2) The initial duties of the standing work group are as follows, but the work group is authorized to develop additional strategies to achieve the goals of this act:
     (a) Develop a method to promote provider behavior change for a set of carefully selected measures for which there is sufficient evidence of need of improvement and organize the provider community in each area around a specific set of behaviors that are known to have a direct impact on outcomes;
     (b) Develop a method to communicate to providers, in the most transparent manner possible, the insurance plan's management data related to total patient episode cost so that they can accurately see where better collaboration could occur to reduce care and costs;
     (c) Develop a method so that all of the providers caring for a patient are assigned the cost of the patient episode so that there is an incentive for providers to talk with each other about how to minimize care and costs;
     (d) Develop a method to communicate to the public accurate comparison data that motivates providers to improve performance, stimulates payers to reward quality and efficiency, and provides information to patients so that they can decide from whom to seek care and what outcomes they may expect and how best to adhere to the treatment and care recommended.
     (3) The work group shall be chaired and appointed jointly by the attorney general and the governor and shall be made up of individuals who are issue and technical experts; culturally competent individuals from a variety of communities; and representatives of tribes, business, labor, insurance, providers groups, health care consumer groups, and higher education health professional training centers. The Washington state health care authority quality forum shall report to the standing work group quarterly on recommendations and findings from the Puget Sound health alliance, the LeapFrog group, and others that would improve access to meaningful information to enable each resident of the state to learn about the quality performance of his or her provider.
     (4) Staff support for the work group shall come from the legislature with assistance from all state agencies that purchase health care and the attorney general's office.
     (5) The work group shall be responsible for recommending to the legislature on November 1st of each year any state law changes and appropriate levels of state funding needed in the following years to reach the ultimate goal of this act.