House Bill 2441 amends RCW 41.26.510 and adds a new section to change how accumulated contributions and survivor benefits are paid to members, vested members, and their surviving spouses, domestic partners, and eligible children. It allows survivors to elect either a retirement allowance (computed under specified RCWs, with certain actuarial adjustments removed in specified circumstances) or a refund of accumulated contributions, including a higher refund option for members who die on or after July 25, 1993. For members determined by the Department of Labor and Industries director to have been killed in the course of employment, and for certain members who die while serving in military or disaster response roles, the retirement allowance is not subject to actuarial reductions for early retirement or for a joint-and-100% survivor option and is computed under RCW 41.26.420 with a minimum equal to 10% of final average salary plus 2% of final average salary for each year of service beyond five. The bill adds benefit payment and premium reimbursement rules: retirement allowances paid to spouses/domestic partners and dependent children of members killed in the course of employment must include reimbursement for premiums to the Washington State Health Care Authority and for Medicare Parts A and B, and beneficiaries entitled to Medicare must enroll in and maintain both Part A and Part B to remain eligible. Reimbursement is also provided for employer-provided medical insurance, COBRA, and Medicare Parts A and B from the date of death until the official determination that the member was killed in the course of employment; if the member is not eligible for that reimbursement, an allowance must include reimbursement for other medical insurance premiums up to the amount that would be reimbursed for COBRA premiums. The bill also addresses survivors who lost industrial insurance payments under RCW 51.32.050 because of remarriage: a surviving spouse or domestic partner who is ineligible for industrial insurance payments due to remarriage shall receive an amount equal to the benefit they would have received but for the remarriage, including benefits suspended or terminated by remarriage prior to July 24, 2015; monthly payments to survivors who previously received a lump sum are to be actuarially reduced to reflect that lump sum. Section 2 makes the premium reimbursement provisions in subsections 1(5)(b) and (c) retroactive to premium payments made after June 10, 2010; otherwise the act is prospective. This is a statutory amendment and an added section affecting benefit computations, eligibility, and premium reimbursement procedures; it does not create a criminal offense or change criminal penalties. Important cross-referenced statutes, definitions (for example, the detailed formulas and definitions of “member,” “eligible child,” and the computation rules in the cited RCWs), and the full text of any other new statutory language are not included in the extracted facts, so the precise calculations and some procedural details cannot be determined from this summary alone.

If enacted, more surviving spouses, domestic partners and eligible children of members who are killed in the course of employment (as determined by the Department of Labor and Industries) will be able to choose a full retirement-type benefit that is not reduced for early retirement or for a full survivor option, with a guaranteed minimum tied to the member’s final average salary and extra amounts for years of service beyond five. Those survivors will also be eligible for reimbursement of certain health insurance premiums — including state health plan premiums, employer-provided insurance or COBRA, and Medicare Parts A and B where required — from the date of death until the agency determines the death was work‑related, and Medicare-eligible beneficiaries must enroll and stay enrolled in Parts A and B to keep that reimbursement. The changes most directly affect retirement system members and their families (who gain higher benefit and insurance payment protections), the Department of Retirement Systems and the Health Care Authority (which will administer and pay these reimbursements), employers and COBRA carriers (whose coverage costs may be reimbursed), and the Department of Labor and Industries (whose determinations trigger benefits). Because the bill refers to many existing statutes for definitions and calculations and does not include those texts here, the exact dollar amounts, how actuarial reductions are removed in every case, and the net budgetary impact on retirement and health programs are not fully clear from these excerpts.