S-3732.1
SENATE BILL 5959
State of Washington
69th Legislature
2026 Regular Session
By Senators Short, Riccelli, Braun, and Pedersen
Prefiled 01/05/26. Read first time 01/12/26. Referred to Committee on Health & Long-Term Care.
AN ACT Relating to protecting access to health care services for Washington state residents through limiting charity care to those individuals that meet Washington state residency requirements; reenacting and amending RCW 70.170.020 ; adding a new section to chapter 70.170 RCW; creating a new section; and declaring an emergency.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that Washington hospitals provide significant benefits to their communities in the form of charity care for both emergency services and nonemergency services. In 2022, hospitals statewide provided $483,000,000 in charity care services to patients.
(2) For over 30 years, the department of health approved hospital charity care policies that included clauses restricting charity care eligibility to residents of the state of Washington and out-of-state patients in need of emergency care. This has ensured that hospitals have sufficient resources to serve and care for the residents of their local communities before providing free care to patients from around the globe. In 2022, the department of health reversed this decades-long policy and began sending letters to individual hospitals requiring policy updates to remove these restrictions. In September 2023, the department issued an interpretive statement requiring all remaining hospitals with geographic restrictions to update their policies by removing the restrictions by January 2024.