Genta Iwasaki

September 5, 2023 Genta Iwasaki, Dominik Mackinnon, Timothy O'Connell Stoel Rives - Health Law Insider® + Follow x Following x Following - Unfollow Contact To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: More than three years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, many healthcare institutions continue to have difficulty fully staffing all their facilities.

More than three years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, many healthcare institutions continue to have difficulty fully staffing all their facilities. In response, both the Oregon and Washington legislatures enacted new laws that will change how hospitals plan for and staff their facilities. While both states will send shockwaves throughout their hospitals, the approaches differ substantially. Oregon Summary Governor Tina Kotek signed into law House Bill 2697 on July 31, 2023 (HB 2697).

Washington’s law regulating “health care benefit managers” (“HCBMs”) went into effect on January 1, 2022. Although Washington’s regulatory scheme for HCBMs has some similarities with how other states regulate “third party administrators” (“TPAs”), the Washington law is much broader. It subjects more entities to regulation than a typical TPA statute and imposes additional burdens on carriers that rely on third parties to perform certain core plan functions.