Washington HB 1432: Concerning juvenile justice.

Bill Text

CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT
ENGROSSED SECOND SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1432
Chapter 227, Laws of 2025
69th Legislature
2025 Regular Session
MENTAL HEALTH AND SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER SERVICES—HEALTH CARRIER
COVERAGE—VARIOUS PROVISIONS
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 27, 2025—Except for sections 1 through 8, which
take effect January 1, 2027.
Passed by the House April 22, 2025
Yeas 78 Nays 19
LAURIE JINKINS
Speaker of the House of
Representatives
Passed by the Senate April 14, 2025
Yeas 48 Nays 1
DENNY HECK
President of the Senate
CERTIFICATE
I, Bernard Dean, Chief Clerk of the
House of Representatives of the
State of Washington, do hereby
certify that the attached is
ENGROSSED SECOND SUBSTITUTE HOUSE
BILL 1432 as passed by the House of
Representatives and the Senate on
the dates hereon set forth.
BERNARD DEAN
Chief Clerk
Approved May 12, 2025 10:18 AM FILED
May 14, 2025
BOB FERGUSON
Governor of the State of Washington
Secretary of State
State of Washington

AN ACT Relating to improving access to appropriate mental health 1
and substance use disorder services by updating Washington's mental 2
health parity law and ensuring coverage of medically necessary care; 3
amending RCW 48.43.016, 48.43.410, 48.43.520, 48.43.535, 48.43.600, 4
and 48.43.830; adding a new section to chapter 48.43 RCW; creating 5
new sections; repealing RCW 48.20.580, 48.21.241, 48.41.220, 6
48.44.341, and 48.46.291; and providing effective dates.7
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:8
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that:9
(a) Access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment 10
is critical to the health and well-being of individuals with these 11
conditions and that access to appropriate care is important to 12
reducing preventable emergency department visits, hospitalizations, 13
and physical health care costs associated with significant 14
comorbidities;15
(b) Health insurance coverage is essential to ensuring that 16
individuals can access needed mental health and substance use 17
disorder treatment and that health carriers should make medical 18
necessity determinations based on the objective needs of the patient; 19
and20
ENGROSSED SECOND SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1432
AS AMENDED BY THE SENATE
Passed Legislature - 2025 Regular Session
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2025 Regular Session
By House Appropriations (originally sponsored by Representatives
Simmons, Eslick, Rule, Davis, Macri, Stearns, Reed, Goodman,
Salahuddin, Pollet, Timmons, and Santos)
READ FIRST TIME 02/28/25.
p. 1 E2SHB 1432.SL

(c) The mental health and substance use disorder workforce faces 1
a number of administrative barriers and undue financial risks with 2
respect to participation in health carriers' provider networks that 3
should be alleviated.4
(2) Therefore, it is the intent of the legislature to increase 5
access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment by 6
updating Washington's mental health parity requirements, requiring 7
that medical necessity determinations be consistent with generally 8
accepted standards of care and recommendations from nonprofit health 9
care provider associations, requiring consistent rules for both 10
mental health and substance use disorders, and eliminating harmful 11
barriers to care.12
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 48.43 13
RCW to read as follows:14
(1) For the purposes of this section:15
(a) "Clinical review criteria" means written guidelines, 16
standards, protocols, or decision rules used by a health carrier, or 17
health care benefit manager on behalf of a health carrier, during 18
utilization review to evaluate the medical necessity of a patient's 19
requested health care services.20
(b) "Core treatment" means a standard treatment or course of 21
treatment, therapy, service, or intervention indicated by generally 22
accepted standards of mental health and substance use disorder care 23
for a condition or disorder.24
(c) "Generally accepted standards of mental health and substance 25
use disorder care" means standards of care and clinical practice that 26
are generally recognized by health care providers practicing in 27
relevant clinical specialties such as psychiatry, psychology, 28
clinical sociology, social work, addiction medicine and counseling, 29
and behavioral health treatment.30
(d) "Health plan" or "health benefit plan" means:31
(i) A health plan as defined by RCW 48.43.005; or32
(ii) A plan deemed by the commissioner to have a short-term 33
limited purpose or duration, or to be a student-only health plan that 34
is guaranteed renewable while the covered person is enrolled as a 35
regular, full-time undergraduate student at an accredited higher 36
education institution.37
(e) "Medically necessary" means a service or product addressing 38
the specific needs of a patient, for the purpose of screening, 39
p. 2 E2SHB 1432.SL

preventing, diagnosing, managing, or treating an illness, injury, 1
condition, or its symptoms, including minimizing t