Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6019 amends RCW 74.39A.310 and 74.39A.530 to change how home care labor and vendor rates are calculated and reviewed. It requires the department to convert changes in total wages and benefits (from negotiated increases or labor rates) into a per-quarter-hour amount every odd-numbered year within 60 days after adjournment sine die, and to add or subtract that amount from the statewide home care agency vendor rate. The bill specifies what the department must include in that conversion (wages, paid time off, mileage, training contributions, health and retirement contributions, employer taxes and premiums, and an optional adjustment for nonbillable work time) and requires the department to avoid duplicate accounting. The bill creates or clarifies rate-setting and accountability procedures. It defines portions of the vendor rate that are dedicated to health benefits and to training and allows those portions to be used only for those purposes. For fiscal year 2027 the department will determine, at its discretion, the portion of the vendor rate for wages, benefits, and employer contributions; beginning fiscal year 2028 that portion equals the prior year plus the new increments. Beginning July 1, 2027, the department or its designee must verify agency compliance with expenditure requirements through either an independent third-party audit or a written attestation from the exclusive bargaining representative, and the department may adopt temporary exemptions by rule for agencies facing extraordinary circumstances. The bill also defines a home care agency administrative rate and enumerates eligible administrative functions. The bill establishes a rate-setting board to evaluate and propose rates for consumer directed employers, sets its voting and nonvoting membership and voting rules, limits any recommended administrative rate to no more than 20 percent of applicable rate bases, and prescribes deadlines and fallback decision rules (including majority and chair-decides defaults if no agreement by August 1 or September 1, and department determination of administrative rates if no agreement by August 1). Rates determined must be submitted to the director of the Office of Financial Management by October 1 for certification and inclusion in the governor’s budget; legislative approval of the requested funds is required for implementation, and until approved the current labor rate remains in effect. The department may modify rates between board activities for specified reasons, but changes may not exceed 2% of combined rates and any increases require legislative appropriation. Some statutory definitions and the identity of “the department,” additional procedural text cut off mid-sentence, and referenced factors in other RCWs are not included in the extracted facts.

If enacted, the bill forces the responsible state department to translate negotiated changes in wages, benefits, taxes, and certain employer costs into a fixed per-quarter-hour add-on to the statewide home care agency vendor rate every odd-numbered year, and to earmark any increases only for direct care worker pay, benefits, training, or related employer contributions. Health and training portions must be spent only on health benefits and training respectively, administrative portions are limited (generally no more than 20 percent), and the department may later verify agency spending starting July 1, 2027, by requiring either a third-party audit or a union attestation, which will raise compliance duties and likely increase administrative costs for agencies that must produce or pay for these documents; the department can temporarily exempt agencies facing extraordinary circumstances. The bill also creates a rate-setting board to recommend labor and administrative rates for consumer directed employers, imposes firm deadlines and tie-break procedures that can force a chair or the department to set rates if members don’t agree, and requires rates to be sent to OFM by October 1 for certification and inclusion in the governor’s budget, so actual new dollars still depend on legislative appropriation. Most affected are home care agencies, consumer directed employers, and direct care workers: agencies face new verification and possible audit costs and tighter limits on how vendor-rate dollars can be used, workers are more likely to see designated dollars for wages and benefits if the legislature funds them, and budget timing and some procedural details (including the exact department named and some selection steps) remain unclear in the provided text.