Washington · statute · Wash. Rev. Code ch. 70.170 · 8 active provisions
(1) The legislature finds and declares that there is a need for health care information that helps the general public understand health care issues and how they can be better consumers and that is useful to purchasers, payers, and providers in making health care choices and negotiating payments. It is the purpose and i…
As used in this chapter:(1) "Charity care" means medically necessary hospital health care rendered to indigent persons when third-party coverage, if any, has been exhausted, to the extent that the persons are unable to pay for the care or to pay deductibles or coinsurance amounts required by a third-party payer, as det…
The department shall have the authority to respond to requests of others for special studies or analysis. The department may require such sponsors to pay any or all of the reasonable costs associated with such requests that might be approved, but in no event may costs directly associated with any such special study be…
(1) No hospital or its medical staff shall adopt or maintain admission practices or policies which result in:(a) A significant reduction in the proportion of patients who have no third-party coverage and who are unable to pay for hospital services;(b) A significant reduction in the proportion of individuals admitted fo…
(1) Every person who shall violate or knowingly aid and abet the violation of RCW * 70.170.060 (5) or (6), 70.170.080, or ** 70.170.100, or any valid orders or rules adopted pursuant to these sections, or who fails to perform any act which it is herein made his or her duty to perform, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.…
The basic expenses for the hospital data collection and reporting activities of this chapter shall be financed by an assessment against hospitals of no more than four one-hundredths of one percent of each hospital's gross operating costs, to be levied and collected from and after that date, upon which the similar asses…
The department and any of its contractors or agents shall maintain the confidentiality of any information which may, in any manner, identify individual patients.
(1) The office of the insurance commissioner, in consultation with the Washington health benefit exchange, shall study and analyze how increasing eligibility for charity care impacts enrollment in health plans with high deductibles over a four-year time period.(2) By November 1, 2026, the office of the insurance commis…