As we have expressed since this fee increase was first proposed, it represents an unfair burden on our hospitals. Hospitals should not pay increased hospital licensing fees unless they are clearly justified by increased workload, enhanced public safety or other necessary costs. This represents a 29 percent increase in the program budget. It follows Table 1 a three percent increase in 1999 and a 30 percent increase in 1998. The expectation was that the funds raised by the previous increases would be used to hire another survey team to increase the number of hospital licensing surveys conducted, as well as provide additional technical assistance for the new hospital licensing rules.
Hospitals are willing to pay their fair share for the operation of the hospital licensing program.
WSHA did not oppose the 30 percent fee increase three years ago because additional surveyors were needed to implement the new hospital licensing rules. However, those funds were diverted to other uses. Instead of increasing surveyors, the funds were used to add another layer of management and the number of hospitals surveyed each year actually decreased. Table 2 shows that in 1995 DOH surveyed 74 hospitals, which decreased to 36 hospitals being surveyed in 2000. The current fee increase was originally planned to cover increased program costs.