BILL REQ. #:  S-3054.1 

Read first time 04/16/09.   Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

     AN ACT Relating to adjusting medical assistance payment rates for hospitals; and amending RCW 74.09.5225.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 74.09.5225 and 2005 c 383 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Payments for recipients eligible for medical assistance programs under this chapter for services provided by hospitals, regardless of the beneficiary's managed care enrollment status, shall be made based on allowable costs incurred during the year, when services are provided by a rural hospital certified by the centers for medicare and medicaid services as a critical access hospital. Any additional payments made by the medical assistance administration for the healthy options program shall be no more than the additional amounts per service paid under this section for other medical assistance programs. The department may adjust payment rates to comport with payment rate changes made to noncritical access hospitals.
     (2) Beginning on July 24, 2005, a moratorium shall be placed on additional hospital participation in critical access hospital payments under this section. However, rural hospitals that applied for certification to the centers for medicare and medicaid services prior to January 1, 2005, but have not yet completed the process or have not yet been approved for certification, remain eligible for medical assistance payments under this section.