Making payments for services provided by a rural emergency hospital subject to appropriation.

 H-2867.1

HOUSE BILL 2488

State of Washington

69th Legislature

2026 Regular Session

By Representatives Schmick, Engell, Dye, and Macri

Read first time 01/14/26. Referred to Committee on Appropriations.

AN ACT Relating to making payments for services provided by a rural emergency hospital subject to appropriation; and amending RCW 74.09.5225 .

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

Sec. 1. RCW 74.09.5225 and 2017 c 198 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, unless the critical access hospital is participating in the Washington rural health access preservation pilot described in subsection (2)(b) of this section. Any additional payments made by the authority for the healthy options program shall be no more than the additional amounts per service paid under this section for other medical assistance programs.