Senate Bill 5,084 would permit the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) to require annual reporting by health carriers of primary-care expenditures, using definitions developed by the Health Care Cost Transparency Board, the House committee heard March 14.

Jane Beyer of OIC told the committee the bill remedies drafting gaps from earlier legislation and would allow OIC to align insurer reporting with the Healthcare Cost Transparency Board and the Health Care Authority’s primary-care reporting used for Medicaid and public-employer plans. Beyer said making the data publicly available would enable tracking of Washington’s statutory 12% primary-care expenditure target adopted in 2022.

Patient advocates also supported the bill. Jim Freyberg of the Patient Coalition of Washington testified that primary-care access is constrained in many communities, citing an average wait of about 3½ months for a new primary-care appointment in his analysis and arguing that better reporting is necessary to measure progress on access and affordability.

No committee vote was taken at the hearing; proponents said the bill is intended to standardize reporting and improve public transparency on primary-care investment across commercial carriers.