OLYMPIA – An attempt to exempt Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County from state licensing requirements for its proposed Hospice House has been abandoned in the face of apprehension from legislators.
House Bill 1489, which would have allowed the exemption, was not passed out of committee.
“The committee loved the program . . . but there was a real concern over being licensed,” said Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, who co-sponsored the bill along with Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim.
Along with Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, the two legislators represent the 24th District, which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and one third of Grays Harbor County.
“The committee was uncomfortable with the liability of exempting them totally,” Kessler said.
Instead, Van De Wege said, the state Department of Social and Health Services would require only an adult family home license – instead of a hospice license – which is $50 per year plus 12 hours of training per caregiver employee per year.
Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County also can send just one person to the training sessions and then have that person train other employees, he said.
Rose Crumb, the founding director of Hospice of Clallam County, said Tuesday she didn’t know if the agency would seek the adult family home license.
“We haven’t made any decisions about what we’re going to do.”
The board will consider it at a special meeting next week, she said.
Opponents of HB 1489 included representatives of Assured Home Health and Hospice, which provides Medicare-certified hospice services in Clallam and Jefferson counties, and of the State Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, which represents for-profit hospices.
The executive director of the latter organization said that it regards licensing of hospice centers to be a health and safety issue.
“Our position is we don’t believe there should be any unregulated care in a facility,” Anne Koepsell said earlier this month.
“It’s a public policy and consumer safety issue, and there’s no precedent for it anywhere else in the state,” she said then.
