This bill adds a new section to chapter 74.39A RCW (Substitute House Bill 2230, 69th Legislature, 2026 Regular Session) and makes a procedural change to how the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) conducts routine monitoring and oversight of community residential service business providers. It limits routine reviews to no more than one annual review per provider in each of these subject areas: client finances, client service plans, federal compliance reviews, client community integration, provider finances, and general quality assurance. The department must combine review activities across subject areas where possible. The one-review-per-year limit does not apply to adult protective services investigations, incident reports, complaint investigations, citation follow-up activities, mortality reviews, or monitoring or oversight activities that are required by federal or state law. The bill also requires DSHS to adopt administrative rules or department policies to require document and record sharing between and within department divisions during monitoring and oversight to minimize repeat requests; those rules or policies may identify exceptions for ongoing investigations and situations where confidentiality prevents sharing. Affected parties named in the text are DSHS, its internal divisions, community residential service business providers, and clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities who receive residential services. The text does not specify the exact new RCW section number, does not define key terms used (for example, "community residential service business provider," "routine review," or "client community integration"), does not include an effective date or implementation timeline, and does not state any penalties, enforcement mechanisms, or detailed procedures for resolving conflicts between department policies and federal requirements beyond the listed exceptions. The bill was read first on 02/03/2026, passed the House on 02/10/2026 (96-0), and passed the Senate on 02/28/2026 (49-0).

If enacted, providers of community residential services and their clients would likely see fewer routine, duplicative audits: the department is limited to one routine review per provider each year in several specified areas and must combine review activities where possible, and it must adopt rules to share documents internally so divisions stop asking providers for the same records repeatedly. That should reduce administrative time and paperwork costs for providers and cut interruptions to direct care, while leaving full oversight in place for incidents, investigations, mortality reviews, complaint follow-ups, and any federal or state-required monitoring. The department of social and health services would need to spend staff time creating and implementing the new internal-sharing rules and coordinating combined reviews, and providers will have to adapt to whatever definitions and processes the department adopts. The bill text here does not say how key terms are defined, give an effective date, or identify funding or enforcement, so the scale and timing of those burden reductions and agency costs depend on the forthcoming rulemaking and any resources the department allocates.