Information on SB 5169

The WSMTA Government Relations Program wants to make you aware of a bill working its way through the current WA state legislative session. Senate Bill 5169 is, “AN ACT Relating to provider reimbursement for personal protective equipment during the state of emergency related to COVID-19; adding a new section to chapter 48.43 RCW; creating new sections; providing a contingent expiration date; and declaring an emergency”.

You can read the full text of the bill here,  https://app.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/

Here are the highlights of this bill.

• The bill's primary driver is the WA State Medical Association.

• The bill provides a code to bill for insurance reimbursement for PPE. The code is 99072. The max dollar reimbursement amount is $6.57 per patient encounter.

• The bill covers “all healthcare providers”.

• The bill will only be in effect as long as the declaration of a state of emergence continues.

• It is prospective and not retroactive.

There will likely be amendments (coming from the health carriers) to the bill, as this is alluded to in the testimony before the Long Term Health Committee.  You can watch that hearing here,  https://www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2021011450

 Likely amendments so far are (nothing has been made public as of the writing of the update).

• Only in-person patient encounters will qualify.

• The provider must have actually incurred cost. For example, you have cost for a new mask for each patient vs you reuse the same mask for multiple patient encounters.

• Tying the mandate to the federal state of emergency rather than WA’s state of emergency.