This bill amends existing law (RCW 71.24.064) to change how assessments for certain Children's Mental Health programs are calculated and administered. It allows reasonable costs for administering the assessment by a contracted third-party administrator to be included in the total assessment and directs the authority, in consultation with the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Seattle Children's Hospital, to determine annual operating costs for each program and the authority’s administration costs. The authority may contract with a third-party administrator to calculate and administer assessments. The amendment establishes a funding/collection procedure: the authority must calculate the share of clients covered by programs funded under chapter 74.09 RCW and those costs are to be paid from state and federal funds as appropriated. For entities that are not covered lives under the authority’s Medicaid managed care contracts, the authority must collect a proportional share of program costs from health carriers, self-funded multiple employer welfare arrangements, and employers or other entities that provide health care in Washington. The proportional share is to be calculated using covered lives measured by covered person months relative to the population served and not covered by chapter 74.09 RCW. The bill also requires the authority to develop separate performance measures for the partnership access lines and the psychiatric consultation line, and requires the UW Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, coordinating with any collaborating hospital, to provide quarterly reports to the authority on demographic data collected by each program, specified performance measures, and systemic barriers to services. This is a modification of an existing statute (procedural and financial changes); it does not create a new criminal offense or change penalties. Some important details are not included in the provided text: the statute refers to “the authority” without defining it here; program descriptions and the specific demographic data referenced are located in RCW 71.24.061 and RCW 71.24.063 but are not provided; chapter 74.09 RCW and the cited RCWs that define “health carriers” and “self-funded multiple employer welfare arrangements” are referenced but their contents are not included; and the statute text begins “Beginning July 1, 2021” while the bill’s filing and passage dates are in 2026, with no explanation of retroactivity or related appropriations or specific funding amounts.

If enacted, this change means non-Medicaid payers — specifically health insurers, self-funded multiple employer welfare arrangements, and employers or other in-state entities that self-fund employee health benefits — will likely face new or increased assessments to cover portions of the operating costs for the partnership access lines, psychiatric consultation line, and related programs, with each entity billed based on its share of covered lives. The law also lets the administering authority hire a third-party administrator and pass that reasonable administrative cost through to those assessed entities, so the total amount billed could be higher than just program operating costs. Medicaid managed care organizations under contract with the authority are explicitly not assessed, and the state will cover the share of costs for clients served under chapter 74.09 RCW through appropriations. The Health Care Authority (referred to as “the authority” in the text) will take on responsibility for calculating program costs, apportioning them by covered person months, and creating separate performance measures for the partnership access lines and psychiatric consultation line; it may also contract out assessment administration. The University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, together with any collaborating hospital such as Seattle Children’s, must provide quarterly demographic, performance, and systemic-barrier reports to the authority, increasing their reporting duties. Important details are missing or unclear here: the text doesn’t define “the authority,” it doesn’t show the specific demographic fields or exact calculation method beyond “covered person months,” it contains no appropriation amounts, and it references a July 1, 2021 effective date without explaining retroactivity.