Rep. TOM CAMPBELL (R-Roy)
2nd LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT
Olympia office: 334 John L. O'Brien Building
PO Box 40600 Olympia, WA 98504-0600
Office: (360) 786-7912

For immediate release: Feb. 4, 2008

House Committee approves bill to simplify health care budget issues

Olympia -- A significant bill to minimize the bureaucracy on state budgets for health care issues won unanimous support from the House Health Care & Wellness Committee today, opening the door for a series of improvements to the state's health care system, said Rep. Tom Campbell, sponsor of House Bill 2907.

"This bill would change the process of operating agreements between the Secretary of Health and the different health professions boards and commissions," said Campbell (R-Roy). "It allows the Department of Health to go directly to the Office of Financial Management (the state Budget Office) without the current DOH process, which has become cumbersome and difficult. This is a huge change in reducing the bureaucracy."

Currently, the Secretary and the various health professions boards and commissions are required to enter into operating agreements to specify the administrative procedures necessary to allow the boards and commissions to function effectively. Campbell's bill allows greater specificity to the contents of written operating agreements as they pertain to personnel, budget, rulemaking, performance measures, dispute resolution, and the annual review of the agreements.

"With this bill, we'll see a direct path from Department of Health to the folks who write the budgets," he added. "It will immediately establish a path of more accountability from government agencies."

Campbell said in the next few weeks, he expects the full House to consider a package of Health Care bills that have now passed the committee. In addition to House Bill 2907, the schedule will also include three other major bills he's sponsored: 

House Bill 1103 gives the state Dept. of Health discipline authority over health care providers who have demonstrated negligence, incompetence or criminal action with patience;

House Bill 2670 covers adverse health events, such as surgical tools left inside a patient's body, removal of the wrong body part -- such as amputating the wrong leg -- or even more serious errors that may lead to death of the patient; and

House Bill 2816 , which allows DOH and specific health profession boards and commissions to adopt rules to identify which instruments for treatment or diagnostic evaluations are prohibited for use by health care providers (so-called "quack" devises).

Each of the four bills have passed the committee and are now being scheduled for debate on the House floor.

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Contact: Rep. Tom Campbell at (360) 786-7912 or campbell.tom@leg.wa.gov