The Legislature has approved a bill introduced by 4th District Sen. Mike Padden that would increase access to mental-health care in Washington.
The House of Representatives last night voted unanimously to pass Senate Bill 5920, Padden’s measure allowing the state Department of Health to create more psychiatric beds in the state. The Senate unanimously approved the bill earlier during the 2024 legislative session.
“This bill addresses a need for vulnerable people and illustrates how certificates of need hurt Washingtonians,” said Padden, R-Spokane Valley. “The need for more beds is clear, and the certificate-of-need law is an unnecessary barrier. States with these laws have higher costs and fewer medical services.”
This proposal would reinstate authority for the Department of Health until 2028 to grant certificate-of-need exemptions related to increasing psychiatric-bed capacity by allowing additional psychiatric beds or construction of a new psychiatric hospital.
Padden noted that a company several years ago was deterred from building a psychiatric hospital in Spokane Valley due to the certificate-of-need process. It was built in California instead, which does not require a certificate of need.
SB 5920 now goes to Gov. Jay Inslee for final consideration.
House Bill 2128, a proposal sponsored by 9th District Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, would direct the Office of Financial Management to contract with a consultant to issue reports on the certificate-of-need program this year and in 2025, and would establish a Certificate of Need Modernization Advisory Committee to advise the consultant and provide feedback on the consultant’s recommendations.