On Friday of last week, Governor Inslee issued two new proclamations to go along with the Long Term Care Safe Start plan. The two proclamations extend all of the same waivers for long term care that are currently in place. No new waivers were added or dropped. The two proclamations simply break out the waivers into two categories. The first is proclamation 20-66 Long-Term Care – Operations and Visitation, which contains all the waived residents’ rights RCWs and applicable WACs, allowing providers to restrict visitation. The second proclamation 20-65 Long Term Care – Workers, Facilities, and Resources, waives the 120 training and certification requirements, fingerprint background checks, inspection timelines, construction review, and the certificate of need. Each of these proclamations is set to expire on Sept 1st, which is the same timeline as the last extension granted by the four corners.

LeadingAge WA has joined with other stakeholders and will be asking for an extension of the workforce waivers through February 2021 to come up with the best solutions to fix these timelines in statute and provide ample time for workers to come back into compliance with the waived regulations. Meanwhile, we continue to advocate for the extension of the visitation waivers.

Questions?

Contact:

Alyssa Odegaard- Vice President, Public Policy 

c: 206.948.2279