This bill amends existing law (RCW 70.38.128) to require the Washington State Department of Health to adopt rules that set criteria for issuing a certificate of need for elective percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) at hospitals that do not provide on-site cardiac surgery and at ambulatory surgical facilities. The department must contract for an independent evidence-based review before beginning rule making, and must consider the review's results and recommendations when adopting the rules. The department must adopt rules for ambulatory surgical facilities by July 1, 2027; no deadline for hospitals without on-site cardiac surgery is specified in the provided text. The independent review must, at a minimum, address access to care, patient safety, quality outcomes, costs, the stability of the state's cardiac care delivery system and existing cardiac care providers, and must ensure that the University of Washington academic medical center maintains elective PCI volumes required for cardiology training consistent with applicable accreditation requirements. Affected parties identified in the excerpt include the Department of Health, hospitals without on-site cardiac surgery, ambulatory surgical facilities, the University of Washington academic medical center, existing cardiac care providers, and cardiologists in training. This is a procedural and regulatory change to existing law that creates a rulemaking requirement and mandates an independent evidence review as part of that rulemaking; it does not create a new crime or change criminal penalties in the provided text. The excerpt does not define key terms used (for example, "elective percutaneous coronary interventions," "certificate of need," or "ambulatory surgical facilities"), does not specify the timeline or procurement process for the independent review, and may be part of a larger bill with additional sections not included here.

If enacted, the Department of Health will need to hire an independent evidence review and then write new rules that could determine whether hospitals without on-site cardiac surgery and certain ambulatory surgical facilities can offer elective percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). That means the department will have new contracting and rule‑making costs and workload, and hospitals and ambulatory surgical facilities should expect new application requirements or limits on whether they may provide elective PCI — ambulatory surgical facilities in particular will face a rule deadline of July 1, 2027. The University of Washington academic medical center and cardiology training programs are likely to see protections in the rules to maintain training volumes, and existing cardiac care providers could gain or lose patient volume depending on the criteria adopted, affecting their revenue and stability. Key implementation details — such as the timing for rules covering hospitals without on-site cardiac surgery, the exact standards to be used, how the independent review will be selected, and how terms like “elective PCI” and “ambulatory surgical facility” are defined — are not specified in the provided text, so planning by affected parties will carry some uncertainty.