CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT

SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5589

67TH LEGISLATURE

2022 REGULAR SESSION

SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5589

BySenate Health & Long Term Care (originally sponsored by Senators Robinson, Cleveland, Frockt, and Randall)

AN ACT Relating to statewide spending on primary care; adding a new section to chapter 70.390 RCW; and adding a new section to chapter 48.43 RCW.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 70.390 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The board shall measure and report on primary care expenditures in Washington and the progress towards increasing it to 12 percent of total health care expenditures.

(2) By December 1, 2022, the board shall submit a preliminary report to the governor and relevant committees of the legislature addressing primary care expenditures in Washington. The report must include:

(a) How to define "primary care" for purposes of calculating primary care expenditures as a proportion of total health care expenditures, and how the definition aligns with existing definitions already implemented in Washington, including the previous report from the office of financial management and the Bree collaborative's recommendations;

(b) Barriers to the access and use of the data needed to calculate primary care expenditures, and how to overcome them;

(c) The annual progress needed for primary care expenditures to reach 12 percent of total health care expenditures in a reasonable amount of time;

(d) How and by whom it should annually be determined whether desired levels of primary care expenditures are being achieved;

(e) Methods to incentivize the achievement of desired levels of primary care expenditures;

(f)(i) Specific practices and methods of reimbursement to achieve and sustain desired levels of primary care expenditures while achieving improvements in health outcomes, experience of health care, and value from the health care system, including but not limited to: Supporting advanced, integrated primary care involving a multidisciplinary team of health and social service professionals; addressing social determinants of health within the primary care setting; leveraging innovative uses of efficient, interoperable health information technology; increasing the primary care and behavioral health workforce; and reinforcing to patients the value of primary care, and eliminating any barriers to access.

(ii) As much as possible, the practices and methods specified must hold primary care providers accountable for improved health outcomes, not increase the administrative burden on primary care providers or overall health care expenditures in the state, strive for alignment across payers, and take into account differences in urban and rural delivery settings; and

(g) The ongoing role of the board in guiding and overseeing the development and application of primary care expenditure targets, and the implementation and evaluation of strategies to achieve them.

(3) Beginning August 1, 2023, the board shall annually submit reports to the governor and relevant committees of the legislature. To the extent possible, the reports must:

(a) Include annual primary care expenditures for the most recent year for which data is available by insurance carrier, by market or payer, in total and as a percentage of total health care expenditure;

(b) Break down annual primary care expenditures by relevant characteristics such as whether expenditures were for physical or behavioral health, by type of provider and by payment mechanism; and

(c) If necessary, identify any barriers to the reporting requirements and propose recommendations for how to overcome them.

(4) In developing the measures and reporting, the board shall consult with primary care providers and organizations representing primary care providers and review existing work in this and other states regarding primary care, including but not limited to the December 2019 report by the office of financial management, the work of the Bree collaborative, the work of the advancing integrated mental health center and the center for health workforce studies at the University of Washington, the work of the Milbank memorial fund, the work of the national academy of sciences, engineering, and medicine, and the work of the authority to strengthen primary care within state purchased health care.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 48.43 RCW to read as follows:

The commissioner may include an assessment of carriers' primary care expenditures in the previous plan year or anticipated for the upcoming plan year in its reviews of health plan form or rate filings. In conducting the review, the commissioner must consider any definition of primary care expenditures and any primary care expenditure targets established under section 1 of this act. The commissioner may determine the form and content of carrier primary care expenditure reporting.

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