(The Center Square) – Hoping to curtail the state’s opioid epidemic, one Republican proposed a bill Thursday that would establish a near-real-time overdose mapping interface with guardrails for privacy.
The proposal follows an 11.7% decrease in opioid overdoses last year, according to the Department of Health. However, overdoses increased 44.2% from 2019 to 2020, 35.6% in 2021, 26.5% in 2022, and 37.6% in 2023, peaking at 2,819. The trend is leveling off, but it skyrocketed 259% from 2016 to 2024.
Last year, DOH data showed Asotin County, Yakima County, Spokane County and other rural areas as having the highest overdose death rates statewide. Representing much of the Yakima region, Rep. Deb Manjarrez, R-Wapato, introduced House Bill 2168, building on another proposal that stalled last session.
“It’s like a $5,000 or $6,000 software cost,” Manjarrez told The Center Square. “So we’re not talking a lot of costs. Once again, we’ve got data that’s sitting there as statistics — let’s do something with it.”
If approved, HB 2168 would require the DOH to input new data into the Washington EMS Information System. The state already maintains an opioid and drug use dashboard, but Manjarrez said the data is for “after-the-fact” purposes, showing overdose death trends that she claims go largely underutilized.
Her proposal would require the DOH and first responders to enter additional data within 24 hours of an overdose, so service providers can use that information in near real time. Those reports would have to include time and date of the overdose, coordinates limited to four decimal points for where EMS found the patient, whether opioid reversal medication was administered and if the overdose was fatal or not.
While the statewide overdose death rate sat at 37.7 per 100,000 people in 2024, Yakima and Spokane County, the two most populous east of the Cascades, far outpaced that with rates at 59.83 and 57.27.
Nationwide, overdose deaths dropped nearly 27% last year, declining from 110,037 in 2023 to 80,391, putting the rate at 23.6 deaths per 100,000 Americans, 37% less than that rate in Washington state.
“The major theme here is our approach to this drug crisis isn’t working and is extremely disconnected with all the services that we provide,” Manjarrez told The Center Square. “We haven’t saved anybody’s lives with [the current opioid and drug use dashboard]. This one, the purpose is to save more lives.”
She thinks it will ultimately lead to quicker deployment of resources. Manjarrez said she proposed HB 2168 after some service providers and public health professionals in her district reached out. She said those parties are in support and noted that her proposal could also attract bipartisan votes.
Manjarrez said Sen. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, plans to propose a companion bill over in the Senate.
The Center Square called Riccelli’s office on Friday for confirmation but was unable to reach her. Last session, Manjarrez’s similar proposal, House Bill 1933, didn’t get a hearing from the House Health Care & Wellness Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Dan Bronoske, D-Lakewood.
Manjarrez said she already talked to Bronoske, a firefighter who would fill out these reports, about HB 2168, and is confident he’ll give it a hearing this time. When asked if he said why HB 1933 didn’t receive a hearing, Manjarrez told The Center Square that she “never asked him.”
One of the big differences between HB 1933 and HB 2168 is that the latter offers several privacy guardrails instead of “universal access” for police and emergency medical services. HB 2168 prohibits data that could identify a patient and stops law enforcement from using the overdose data for welfare and warrant checks, criminal investigations and/or prosecuting the person treated by EMS for an overdose.
“This is really for health care,” Manjarrez told The Center Square. “Not a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
If approved, DOH must begin submitting the overdose data for the new dashboard by Jan. 1, 2027.
