Appropriations Committee Hears Extension to Medicaid Access Program Deadlines Citing Federal HR 1 Limits

On Jan. 30 the House Appropriations Committee received a briefing and heard public testimony on HB 23-85, which would extend deadlines and statutory references tied to the Medicaid Access Program established by Substitute House Bill 13-92.

Megan Morris briefed members that HB 13-92 (passed in the prior session) created a Medicaid Access Program and a covered-lives assessment intended to leverage federal matching funds to raise professional service Medicaid rates. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulates state-directed payments and acceptable sources for the non-federal share. Federal HR 1, enacted July 4, 2025, restricts the imposition of new health-care related provider taxes and the timing prevented HCA from obtaining CMS approval to impose the covered-lives assessment. HB 23-85 extends the date by which the Health Care Authority must submit state plan amendments or waiver requests to CMS from Sept. 1, 2025, to Sept. 1, 2030; it also extends the expiration date of the act from Jan. 1, 2027, to Jan. 1, 2032, and updates the reference year used to compare professional service rates to Medicare rates.

Representative Macri, sponsor of the earlier bill, told the committee the extension preserves a future option to pursue federal approval and avoids letting the law sunset without the chance to implement it later. Sean Graham of the Washington State Medical Association testified in support, saying legislators and medical professionals should preserve the program’s potential to improve reimbursements and access to care; he warned that without this extension the statute would sunset and the option would be lost.

Staff said preliminary fiscal analysis is available on the committee’s electronic bill binder and that actual fiscal impacts depend on whether and when the program moves forward and on future federal and state reimbursement rates. The hearing ended with no vote.