| Passed by the House February 13, 2014 Yeas 98 ________________________________________ Speaker of the House of Representatives Passed by the Senate March 7, 2014 Yeas 49 ________________________________________ President of the Senate | I, Barbara Baker, Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 2310 as passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on the dates hereon set forth. ________________________________________ Chief Clerk | |
| Approved ________________________________________ Governor of the State of Washington | Secretary of State State of Washington |
| State of Washington | 63rd Legislature | 2014 Regular Session |
READ FIRST TIME 02/05/14.
AN ACT Relating to safety equipment for individual providers; and adding a new section to chapter 74.39A RCW.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 A new section is added to chapter 74.39A RCW
to read as follows:
(1) The legislature finds and declares that universal precautions
are important health and safety protections for home care clients and
workers who provide direct care for those clients. The use of personal
protective equipment such as gloves is an established component of
universal precautions and a key tool to protect against exposure to
bloodborne pathogens such as hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and
human immunodeficiency virus. Most medicaid clients are eligible to
receive gloves through their medicaid benefit, yet the majority of
clients are not aware of or do not use this benefit and as a result do
not have gloves available in the home for individual providers to use.
The legislature intends to improve the availability and usage of gloves
by individual providers as part of universal precautions by ensuring
that medicaid clients access gloves through their medicaid benefit.
(2) For medicaid clients, the department shall coordinate with the
health care authority to assist clients receiving personal care
services in accessing gloves as part of their health benefit for
individual providers to use in the course of providing tasks where
universal precautions are warranted. The assistance by the department
and the health care authority must be designed to facilitate clients
being able to access gloves on a monthly basis in a cost-effective and
easy to access manner and must be consistent with requirements to
receive federal matching funds under medicaid.
(3) In cases where clients are not eligible to receive such gloves
under medicaid, the department shall work with the health care
authority to develop a methodology to ensure clients have access to
gloves on a monthly basis in a cost-effective and easy to access
manner.
(4) The department shall submit a brief report with data on
utilization of gloves by clients who are served by individual providers
to the health care committees of the legislature by December 1, 2015.