This bill amends an uncodified 2024 provision to direct the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, in consultation with the Health Care Authority, to convene a work group to design the parameters of a palliative care benefit and a payment model for fully insured health plans. This is a procedural change that creates an official work group, requires reporting, and authorizes the commissioner to contract for actuarial analysis if necessary; it does not create a new crime or change criminal penalties. The work group must coordinate with the Health Care Authority’s work on a palliative care benefit for the state Medicaid program and the Employee and Retiree Benefits Program, and consider clinical eligibility criteria, services to be included, appropriate staffing and provider training, evaluation and reporting requirements, and payment models. The bill requires that any recommendations permit volunteer hospice organizations that provide care without compensation under RCW 70.127.050 to offer palliative care without meeting the new benefit elements or obtaining a license. Membership, appointing authorities, affected agencies, and stakeholders are specified, the group must meet by July 30, 2024, report to the legislature by November 1, 2025, the section expires June 1, 2026, and the act takes effect immediately under an emergency clause. The text defines palliative care for this section as expert assessment and management of symptoms, coordination of care, and support for patients and caregivers, delivered alongside curative or life‑prolonging care. The summary omits the original pre-amendment language of the amended 2024 provision, the definitions in RCW 48.43.005 and RCW 70.127.050, details of the Health Care Authority’s ongoing work, and any specific contractual or budget details for actuarial analysis, which are not provided in the extracted facts.

The bill creates a time‑limited, multi‑stakeholder work group led by the Insurance Commissioner, working with the Health Care Authority, to design what a palliative care benefit and payment model should look like for fully insured health plans and to coordinate that work with Medicaid and the state employee benefits program. In practical terms this means agencies, insurers, hospitals, hospice and palliative clinicians, and other named stakeholders will need to commit staff time and may incur modest costs (the commissioner may hire an actuary if needed) to develop clinical eligibility, service lists, staffing and training approaches, evaluation and reporting standards, and payment options; the group must start meetings by July 30, 2024 and deliver recommendations and any draft legislation by November 1, 2025, and the section expires June 1, 2026. The parties most affected are fully insured carriers and health plans (which could see future changes to covered benefits and payment approaches), the Health Care Authority and Insurance Commissioner (who must run and coordinate the work), and palliative/hospice providers (who may need to adjust staffing or training if recommendations are adopted). Volunteer hospice organizations that provide care without compensation keep the explicit option to continue offering palliative care without meeting the new benefit elements or obtaining a license. The text does not specify how any resulting recommendations would be funded, adopted into law, or how they would change premiums or provider payments.