Other Languages1. The Washington State Health Insurance Pool is an entity created by statute for specified state purposes and lacks the authority to assume the form of a non-profit corporation. 2. The Washington State Health Insurance Pool cannot effectively, through amending its plan of operation and obtaining the approval of the Insurance Commissioner, change the extent to which its board members, officers, or employees are liable for their actions.
1. If an employer offers its employees a health care package that includes prescription drug coverage, it is an “unfair practice” contrary to state statute (and in many cases also to federal law) to exclude coverage of prescription contraceptives, even on the basis of the “conscientious objector” statute, RCW 48.43.065. 2. The insurance commissioner has authority to require health care insurance carriers to include the cost of prescription contraceptives as a component in the rate setting actuarial analysis, where an employer raises a conscientious objection to paying these costs directly as part of that employer’s employee health care benefit package.
RCW 41.80.040(5) prohibits the State, as an
employer, from engaging in collective bargaining regarding supplemental
retirement benefits for state employees independent of state-controlled
retirement plans. It also prohibits engaging in collective bargaining
regarding retiree health and welfare benefits.
1. RCW 48.21.200, as amended, does not require a secondary insurer to pay the full policy amount to an insured who has dual or multiple coverage, whether the policies in question are individual or group policies. 2. In enacting amendments to RCW 48.21.200, the Legislature intended to allow insurers to reduce overall health insurance cost by coordinating benefits in cases of dual or multiple coverage, subject to implementing regulations to be adopted by the insurance commissioner.
RCW 28A.400.280 requires a school district to offer some form of each of the five "basic benefits" defined in RCW 28A.400.270, before it can expend school funds for additional or alternative "optional" benefits.
1. Employers have a statutory right to exclude coverage of specific procedures or services when they provide health insurance to employees, but this right is limited by other state statutes and federal laws if the exercise of the right results in discrimination on the basis of gender. 2. WAC 284-43-822 does not supersede the “conscience” rights of employers under RCW 48.43.065 but may (along with the statutes it implements) limit the ways in which the “conscience” rights are exercised.