Legislative relations
Find current and past legislative reports and presentations for the Health Care Authority (HCA).
On this page
The legislative team
HCA's legislative team engages on state and federal policy issues to help ensure Washington State residents — from public employees to Washington Apple Health (Medicaid) clients — have access to high-quality health care at the best possible cost.
Our work includes:
- Monitoring state and federal legislation — and giving guidance to lawmakers, when needed, about how to best serve our constituents.
- Proposing state legislation that benefits how we serve our constituents.
- Keeping lawmakers and stakeholders informed on the latest issues affecting the health care industry and our efforts to transform health care.
Legislative briefs
2022
Decision packages
- Request legislation and decision package priorities for 2023 (September 2022)
2021
IT and data
- Health and Human Services (HHS) Coalition and HCA priority budget decision packages
This document contains background on currently funded initiatives and decision packages for the 2021-23 biennium that are of priority to the Health Care Authority (HCA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) Coalition.
Legislative presentations
2023
We've listed presentations from this year in chronological order.
- Apple Health (January 30)
- Long Term Civil Commitment Community Bed Capacity (January 26)
- Opioid Crisis and State Response (January 26)
- Children and Youth Behavioral Health Work Group Recommendations (January 17)
- HCA Overview:
- House Health Care & Wellness Committee (January 10)
- Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee (January 10)
Past presentations
- 2022
- 2021
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- List of behavioral health investments (May 17, 2021)
- Apple Health COVID-19 response (January 20, 2021)
- Health transformation update (January 22, 2021)
- 2020
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Apple Health (Medicaid)
- Medicaid Managed Care, Senate Health and Long-term Care Committee (January 13, 2020)
Behavioral health
- 2019
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Apple Health (Medicaid)
- Barriers to primary care access in Apple Health, Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee (January 16, 2019)
- Update on the Medicaid Transformation Waiver, House Appropriations Committee (September 12, 2019)
Behavioral health
- Involuntary Treatment Act, Senate Behavioral Health Subcommittee to Health and Long Term Care (January 18, 2019)
- Substance use disorder and treatment programs funded with marijuana excise tax revenue, House Commerce and Gaming Committee (January 22, 2019)
- Washington State Problem Gambling Program, House Commerce and Gaming Committee (January 22, 2019)
- Behavioral health integration update, Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee (January 25, 2019)
- Addressing homelessness, Senate Behavioral Health Subcommittee and Senate Housing Stability and Affordability Committee (March 27, 2019)
- Involuntary Treatment Act overview, Senate Behavioral Health Subcommittee and Senate Housing Stability and Affordability Committee (March 27, 2019)
- Practices for patients who are difficult to discharge, House Health Care and Wellness Committee (September 12, 2019)
Managed care and other agency activities
- Update on key agency activities, House Health Care and Wellness Committee (January 18, 2019)
- Prescription drugs, Medicaid Transformation Waiver, and integrated managed care
- Managed care program oversight (January 29, 2019)
- Update on Washington Accountable Communities of Health, Joint Select Committee on Health Care Oversight (July 23, 2019)
Prescription drugs
- Emerging drug therapies, House Health Care and Wellness Committee (January 18, 2019)
- Emerging drug therapies, Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee (January 28, 2019)
School Employees Benefits Board (SEBB) Program
Legislative fact sheets
- Behavioral health and recovery
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2023
Block grants
- Community Mental Health Services Block Grant (MHBG)
- Mental Health Block Grant (MHBG) supplemental and enhancement funding
- Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant (SABG)
- Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant: COVID-19 supplemental and enhancement funding
Prenatal - 25 services
- Children's Long-Term Inpatient Program (CLIP)
- Collegiate Recovery Support network
- Family Initiated Treatment (FIT)
- Family Substance Use Disorder education and curriculum
- Family Youth System Partner Round Table (FYSPRT)
- First Episode Psychosis - New Journeys
- Intensive Outpatient (IOP) partial hospitalization pilot program
- Mental Health Assessment for Young Children (MHAYC)
- Neurodevelopmental Behavioral Treatment Center (NBTC), formerly known as the Habilitative Mental Health (HMH) program
- Parent Child Assistance Program (PCAP)
- Parent Trust in Recovery
- Pregnant and Parenting Women (PPW) services
- Regional Youth Behavioral Health Navigators
- Residential Crisis Stabilization Program (RCSP)
- Statewide youth network
- Substance Use Disorder Family Navigator program
- System of Care
- Washington State children's behavioral health statewide family network
- Washington State fetal alcohol syndrome diagnostic and prevention (FASDPN)
- Wraparound with Intensive Services (WISe)
- Youth Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment services
Prevention services
- Cannabis legalization/Initiative 502 mandates
- Community Prevention and Wellness Initiative (CPWI)
- High potency THC policy
- Partnerships For Success (PFS) 2018 grant
- Prescription drug and opioid misuse prevention
- Prevention workforce development
- School-based prevention and intervention services
- State prevention consortium and plan
- Strategic prevention framework for prescription drugs (SPF Rx) grant
- Suicide prevention mental health promotion
- Washington Healthy Youth (WHY) coalition
- Washington State Healthy Youth Survey
- Washington State young adult health survey
Recovery services
- Clubhouse and Peer-Run Organization programs
- Foundational Community Supports (FCS)
- Foundational Community Supports – Transition Assistance Program (TAP)
- Homeless Outreach Stabilization and Transition (HOST)
- Housing and Recovery through Peer Services (HARPS)
- Oxford House
- Peer Bridger
- Peer respites
- Project for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH)
- Recovery residence
- Supporting Recovery in Community
Treatment services
- 90- or 180-day long term civil commitment bed capacity
- Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT)
- Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC)
- Contingency Management
- Criminal justice treatment account (CJTA)
- Crisis System Enhancement and 988 Implementation
- Crisis triage and stabilization facilities
- Fee-For-Service programs for American Indian/Alaskan Natives
- Firearm background check
- Hub and Spoke projects
- Intensive behavioral health treatment facilities
- Intensive residential teams
- Involuntary treatment act
- Mobile Crisis Response Teams Enhancements
- Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) in jails
- Naloxone distribution
- Opioid overdose reversal medication distribution (Senate Bill 5195)
- Opioid Treatment Networks
- Problem gambling treatment
- Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT)
- Recovery navigator program
- Reentry Community Services Program (RCSP)
- Rural access study
- Secure Withdrawal Management and Stabilization (SWMS) facility
- State Opioid Response III
- Substance Use Disorder outpatient treatment and residential services
2022
Prevention services
- Community Prevention and Wellness Coalition Initiative (CPWI)
- Emergency response suicide prevention grant
- Healthy youth survey
- Partnerships for success
- Prescription drug/opioid prevention
- Prevention workforce development
- Retail marijuana
- School based prevention and intervention
- State prevention consortium and plan
- Suicide prevention and mental health promotion
- Washington Healthy Youth (WHY) coalition
- Washington Strategic Prevention Framework for Prescription Drugs Grant (WA SPF Rx)
- Young adult health survey
Treatment services
- 2022 Substance Abuse Block Grant (SABG) funding
- 2022 Mental Health Services Block Grant (MHBG)
- Adult withdrawal management services
- Behavioral health intensive facilities
- Certified community behavioral health clinic expansion grant
- Contingency management (CM) project
- Criminal justice treatment account (CJTA)
- Crisis triage/crisis stabilization facilities
- ESB 5476 SURSAC committee
- Evaluation and treatment facilities
- Fee-for-Service programs
- Fentanyl fact sheet
- Firearms compliance
- Hub and spoke projects
- Intensive residential teams
- Involuntary treatment services
- Long term civil commitment
- Mental health assessments for young children
- Mental Health Block Grant COVID funding
- Medication for Opioid Use disorders in jails
- Naloxone distribution
- Nurse care manager project
- Offender re-entry program
- Opioid Treatment Network (OTN)
- PACT expansion
- Parent Child Assistance Program (PCAP)
- Parent Trust families in recovery
- Problem gambling
- Recovery help line
- Secure Withdrawal Management Services (SWMS)
- Substance Abuse Block Grant COVID funding COVID funding
- Substance Use Disorder (SUD) outpatient treatment and residential services
- State Opioid Response Plan
- Youth substance use disorder treatment plan
Recovery services
- 1115 mental health IMD waiver
- 1115 substance use disorder IMD waiver
- Behavioral health marketing campaign
- Children's Long Term Inpatient Program (CLIP)
- Family Initiated Treatment (FIT)
- Family Youth System Partner Roundtables (FYSPRT)
- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Diagnostic and Prevention Network (FAS DPN)
- Foundational Community Supports (FCS) overview
- Foundational Community Supports (FCS) program update
- HB 1504 program fact sheet
- Healthy transitions project
- Homeless Outreach Stabilization and Transition (HOST)
- Intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization program
- New Journeys, coordinated specialty care
- Office of Recovery Partnerships
- Peer bridger
- Peer pathfinder project
- Pregnant and parenting women
- Proviso 40 criminal background check
- Proviso 74 teaching clinic enhancement rates
- Recovery navigator program
- Recovery residences
- Safe and supportive transition to stable housing for youth ages 16 to 25
- Statewide family network
- Statewide youth leadership network
- Supportive housing
- Supporting recovery in community
- System of care expansion
- Wraparound with Intensive Services (WISe)
2021
- Behavioral health diagnosis for young children
- Behavioral health expansion: State v. Blake (ESB 5476)
- Behavioral Health Intensive Treatment facilities
- Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Community grant fact sheet
- Children's Long Term Inpatient Program (CLIP)
- Family Youth System Partnership Round Tables (FYSPRT)
- Firearms background checks
- Housing and Recovery through Peer Services (HARPS)
- Hub and Spoke
- Intensive Residential Teams (IRT)
- Nurse care manager project fact sheet
- Offender re-entry community safety program
- Oxford house fact sheet
- Opioid RX program
- Parent Child Assistance Program (PCAP)
- Parent Trust Families in Recovery network
- Peer bridger
- Peer pathfinder project
- Peer respites
- Peer support services
- Pregnant and parenting women services
- Problem gambling
- Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) teams
- Program to Assist in the Transition from Homelessness (PATH)
- Recovery residences
- Secure Withdrawal Management and Stabilization facility
- Social determinants of health-housing
- Supported employment 1115
- Washington Healthy Youth Survey
- Youth behavioral health access
- Washington Recovery Help Line
- Washington State Fetal Alcohol Syndrome diagnostic and prevention network
- Apple Health (Medicaid) and PEBB coverage
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Apple Health (Medicaid) and PEBB coverage by legislative district
Contact
Shawn O'Neill, legislative relations manager
Email: shawn.oneill@hca.wa.gov