Establishing the health care cost transparency board. The Health Care Cost Transparency Board (Transparency Board) is established for the purpose of calculating and analyzing information and trends related to health care costs in Washington. The Transparency Board’s activities relate to annually calculating total health care expenditures. “Total health care expenditures” is defined as all health care expenditures in the state by private and public sources, including payments on health care providers’ claims, other payments to health care providers, cost-sharing paid by residents, and the net cost of private health coverage. The Transparency Board must also annually calculate health care cost growth. The term “health care cost growth” means the annual percentage change in total health care expenditures in Washington. The calculation must be performed statewide, by geographic area, for each health care provider or provider system, for each payer, by market segment, per capita, and for other categories recommended by advisory committees. In addition, the Transparency Board must annually establish the health care cost growth benchmark for increases in total health expenditures. The “health care cost growth benchmark” is the target percentage for health care cost growth. The Transparency Board
must identify health care providers and payers that exceed the health care cost growth benchmark. Beginning in 2023, the Transparency Board must analyze the impacts of cost drivers to health care and incorporate the analysis into determining the annual total health care expenditures and establishing the annual health care cost growth benchmark. The cost drivers may include labor, capital costs, supply costs, uncompensated care, administrative and compliance costs, taxes, availability of post-acute care and housing, and regional
differences in input prices.