RCW 74.60.050 Notices of assessment—Administration and collection. (Expires July 1, 2023.)

(1) The authority, in cooperation with the office of financial management, shall develop rules for determining the amount to be assessed to individual hospitals, notifying individual hospitals of the assessed amount, and collecting the amounts due. Such rule making shall specifically include provision for:

(a) Transmittal of notices of assessment by the authority to each hospital informing the hospital of its nonmedicare hospital inpatient days and the assessment amount due and payable;

(b) Interest on delinquent assessments at the rate specified in RCW 82.32.050; and

(c) Adjustment of the assessment amounts in accordance with subsection (3) of this section.

(2) For any hospital failing to make an assessment payment within ninety days of its due date, the authority may offset an amount from payments scheduled to be made by the authority to the hospital, reflecting the assessment payments owed by the hospital plus any interest. The authority shall deposit these offset funds into the dedicated hospital safety net assessment fund.

(3) For each state fiscal year, the assessment amounts established under RCW 74.60.030 must be adjusted as follows:

(a) If sufficient other funds, including federal funds, are available to make the payments required under this chapter and fund the state portion of the quality incentive payments under RCW 74.09.611 and 74.60.020(4)(f) without utilizing the full assessment under RCW 74.60.030, the authority shall reduce the amount of the assessment to the minimum levels necessary to support those payments;

(b) If the total amount of inpatient and outpatient supplemental payments under RCW 74.60.120 is in excess of the upper payment limits and the entire excess amount cannot be disbursed by additional payments to managed care organizations under RCW 74.60.130, the authority shall proportionately reduce future assessments on prospective payment hospitals to the level necessary to generate additional payments to hospitals that are consistent with the upper payment limit plus the maximum permissible amount of additional payments to managed care organizations under RCW 74.60.130;

(c) If the amount of payments to managed care organizations under RCW 74.60.130 cannot be distributed because of failure to meet federal actuarial soundness or utilization requirements or other federal requirements, the authority shall apply the amount that cannot be distributed to reduce future assessments to the level necessary to generate additional payments to managed care organizations that are consistent with federal actuarial soundness or utilization requirements or other federal requirements;

(d) If required in order to obtain federal matching funds, the maximum number of nonmedicare inpatient days at the higher rate provided under RCW 74.60.030(1)(b)(i) may be adjusted in order to comply with federal requirements;

(e) If the number of nonmedicare inpatient days applied to the rates provided in RCW 74.60.030 will not produce sufficient funds to support the payments required under this chapter and the state portion of the quality incentive payments under RCW 74.09.611 and 74.60.020(4)(f), the assessment rates provided in RCW 74.60.030 may be increased proportionately by category of hospital to amounts no greater than necessary in order to produce the required level of funds needed to make the payments specified in this chapter and the state portion of the quality incentive payments under RCW 74.09.611 and 74.60.020(4)(f); and

(f) Any actual or estimated surplus remaining in the fund at the end of the fiscal year must be applied to reduce the assessment amount for the subsequent fiscal year or that fiscal year and the following fiscal years prior to and including fiscal year 2023.

(4)(a) Any adjustment to the assessment amounts pursuant to this section, and the data supporting such adjustment, including, but not limited to, relevant data listed in (b) of this subsection, must be submitted to the Washington state hospital association for review and comment at least sixty calendar days prior to implementation of such adjusted assessment amounts. Any review and comment provided by the Washington state hospital association does not limit the ability of the Washington state hospital association or its members to challenge an adjustment or other action by the authority that is not made in accordance with this chapter.

(b) The authority shall provide the following data to the Washington state hospital association sixty days before implementing any revised assessment levels, detailed by fiscal year, beginning with fiscal year 2011 and extending to the most recent fiscal year, except in connection with the initial assessment under this chapter:

(i) The fund balance;

(ii) The amount of assessment paid by each hospital;

(iii) The state share, federal share, and total annual medicaid fee-for-service payments for inpatient hospital services made to each hospital under RCW 74.60.120, and the data used to calculate the payments to individual hospitals under that section;

(iv) The state share, federal share, and total annual medicaid fee-for-service payments for outpatient hospital services made to each hospital under RCW 74.60.120, and the data used to calculate annual payments to individual hospitals under that section;

(v) The annual state share, federal share, and total payments made to each hospital under each of the following programs: Grants to certified public expenditure hospitals under RCW 74.60.090, for critical access hospital payments under RCW 74.60.100; and disproportionate share programs under RCW 74.60.110;

(vi) The data used to calculate annual payments to individual hospitals under (b)(v) of this subsection; and

(vii) The amount of payments made to managed care plans under RCW 74.60.130, including the amount representing additional premium tax, and the data used to calculate those payments.

(c) On a monthly basis, the authority shall provide the Washington state hospital association the amount of payments made to managed care plans under RCW 74.60.130, including the amount representing additional premium tax, and the data used to calculate those payments.

[ 2019 c 318 § 5; 2017 c 228 § 5; 2015 2nd sp.s. c 5 § 4; 2013 2nd sp.s. c 17 § 5; 2010 1st sp.s. c 30 § 6.]

NOTES:

Effective date—2019 c 318: See note following RCW 74.60.005.

Effective date—2017 c 228: See note following RCW 74.60.005.

Effective date—2015 2nd sp.s. c 5: See note following RCW 74.60.005.

Effective date—2013 2nd sp.s. c 17: See note following RCW 74.60.005.