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 guiding 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 priorities
HCA is the largest purchaser of health care in the state. There are three pillars of our work: Apple Health (Medicaid); health benefits for public and school employees; and behavioral health and recovery. Under these pillars, HCA purchases and coordinates health care services including behavioral health treatment for more than 2.7 million Washington residents and provides behavioral health prevention, crisis, and recovery supports to all Washington residents.
For a summary of our agency's highest legislative priorities, please view our 2025 budget and legislative proposals.
For information related to Public Employees Benefits Board and School Employees Benefits Board (PEBB/SEBB) access and affordability, please view our:
- HCA Legislative Symposium
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HCA hosts an annual Legislative Symposium, inviting members of the Legislature and staff to learn more about agency projects and priorities. The goal of the symposium is to provide a deeper dive into key topics and answer questions.
2024 Legislative Symposium
This year's event is cancelled. We will hold the next symposium in 2025.
2023 symposium resources
- 2023 Legislative Symposium recording (November 9, 2023)
- 2023 Legislative Symposium slide deck
- Legislative presentations
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Presentations are listed in reverse chronological order.
2024
2023
- PHE Unwind (July 19)
- Apple Health expansion program (July 18)
- Pharmacy Benefit Managers (April 18)
- HCA post-pandemic facilities use (March 10)
- 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 and Wellness Committee (January 10)
- HCA Overview - Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee (January 10)
Legislative communications resources
- Communications toolkits
Legislative fact sheets
- Apple Health (Medicaid)
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- What you need to know about Apple Health
- Value-based purchasing and Managed Care Organization withhold incentive
- Medicaid in Washington State: data about Medicaid spending and potential impacts of federal budget reduction proposals
- Behavioral health and recovery
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Block grants
- Community Mental Health Services Block Grant (MHBG)
- Substance Use, Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services (SUPTRS) block grant
Prenatal - 25 services
- Children's behavioral health statewide family network
- Children's Long Term Inpatient Program (CLIP)
- Collegiate Recovery Support Project
- Families in Recovery with Parent Trust for Washington Children
- Family Initiated Treatment (FIT)
- Family Youth System Partner Round Table (FYSPRT)
- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Diagnostic and Prevention Network (FASDPN)
- Healthy transition project
- Intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization pilot program
- Mental health assessment for young children (MHAYC)
- New Journeys (first episode psychosis)
- Parent-Child Assistance Program
- Pregnant and Parenting Women (PPW) services
- Residential Crisis Stabilization Program
- Statewide youth network
- Substance use disorder family navigator projects
- System of Care grant
- The Bridge
- Youth Behavioral Health Navigators (Kids Mental Health WA)
- Youth substance use disorder treatment services
- Wraparound with Intensive Services (WISe)
Prevention services
- Community Prevention and Wellness Initiative (CPWI)
- Partnerships for Success (PFS) 2018 grant
- Prescription drug and opioid misuse prevention
- Retail marijuana legalization
- School-based prevention and intervention services
- State Prevention Enhancement (SPE) plan
- Strategic prevention framework for prescription drug (SPF Rx)
- Suicide prevention and mental health promotion
- Prevention workforce development
- Washington Healthy Youth (WHY) Coalition
- Washington Healthy Youth Survey
- Washington Young Adult Health Survey (YAHS)
Recovery services
- Apple Health and homes
- Clubhouse and peer-run organization programs
- Foundational Community Supports (FCS)
- FCS Supportive Housing
- FCS Transition Assistance Program (TAP)
- Homeless Outreach Stabilization and Transition (HOST) program
- Housing and Recovery through Peer Services (HARPS)
- Housing stabilization crisis response
- Housing First
- Office of Community Voice and Empowerment
- Oxford Houses
- Pathways to Recovery Employment and Education (PREE)
- Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH)
- Peer Bridger
- Peer Pathfinders project
- Peer Respites
- Peer support certification and workforce development
- Recovery in Community
- Recovery Residences
- Short-term housing vouchers
- Supported employment
- Trueblood diversion
- Trueblood global leasing
Substance use disorder treatment
- Adult drug court and veterans treatment court discretionary grant
- Adult voluntary withdrawal management
- Alternative Response Teams
- Arrest and Jail Alternatives program
- Contingency management
- Criminal justice treatment account (CJTA)
- Engrossed Senate Bill 5476 (State v. Blake behavioral health expansion)
- Health Engagement Hubs
- High intensity community-based opioid treatment teams
- Hub and Spoke projects
- Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) grant program
- Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) in jails
- Naloxone distribution
- Nurse care manager project
- Opioid Treatment Program (OTP)
- Opioid Treatment Networks (OTN)
- Recovery Navigator Program
- Residential Substance Abuse Treatment program
- Stagewise Implementation: Target Medications for Addiction Treatment (SITT MAT) program
- State Opioid and Overdose Response Plan (SOORP)
- State Opioid Response III (SOR III) grant
- SOR III Tribal programs
- State v. Blake (2E2SSB) 5536
- Substance use disorder outpatient treatment and residential services
- Substance Use Recovery Services Advisory Committee (SURSAC)
Treatment services
- 1115 mental health IMD waiver
- 1115 substance use disorder IMD waiver
- Assisted outpatient treatment
- Certified community behavioral health clinic
- Facility-based crisis stabilization
- Fee-for-service
- Firearm background check
- Intensive behavioral health treatment facilities
- Intensive residential teams
- Involuntary Treatment Act
- Long-term civil commitment bed capacity
- Mobile rapid response crisis teams
- Olympic Heritage Behavioral Health Facility
- Problem gambling treatment
- Programs for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT)
- Reentry Community Services Program (RCSP)
- Short-term involuntary treatment facilities
- Employee and retiree benefits
- IT projects
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2024 HCA-involved IT projects
HCA and our agency partners in the HHS Coalition envision a modern, connected, and efficient health care system. To further these efforts, participating entities are working to implement years-long projects to connect Washingtonians to a large suite of health and human services.
This document summarizes HCA’s efforts to integrate systems, coordinate crisis response, and ensure equitable access to programs and services. It provides an overview of the following projects:
- Integrated eligibility and enrollment (IE&E)
- 988 crisis line
- Enterprise electronic health records (EHR)
- Community information exchange (CIE)