Sunrise Reviews

Introduction and Background

In Washington State, the Department of health makes recommendations to the legislature on health profession credentialing proposals and proposals to add new insurance mandates. These are done at the request of the chairs of legislative committees. The process is called a "sunrise review." Requirements for health profession reviews are contained in chapter 18.120 RCW. Requirements for mandated benefit reviews are listed in chapter 48.47 RCW.

Completed health profession and mandated benefit reviews A - Z list

Questions or comments, or wish to request hard copies of reports, email us or call 360-236-4612.

The process

• Health profession reviews
• Mandated benefit reviews

Health profession sunrise reviews in progress

Naturopathic Physician Scope of Practice

The Washington State Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee has requested the department review a proposal to increase the naturopathic physician scope of practice to assess whether it meets the sunrise criteria in RCW 18.120.010. The request includes, among other additions, the ability to prescribe schedule II-V controlled substances.

The applicant group for this proposal is the Washington Association of Naturopathic Physicians (WANP).

Progress to Date

The department

• accepted public written comments on the proposal through November 20, 2023:
  • Written comments - Part 1 (PDF)
  • Written comments - Part 2 (PDF)
  • Written comments - Part 3 (PDF)
• held a public comment meeting to collect oral comments. Here is a video of that meeting.
• reviewed comments and conducted independent research.

Current Activity

•    The department is sharing a draft report (PDF) and inviting public comments on the draft recommendations.
•    We are asking for this last round of comments to be submitted through a survey to help analyze the responses. Survey responses are due by midnight 8/30/2024. (Please email sunrise@doh.wa.gov if you have issues completing the survey.)

Next Steps

•    The department will review the final comments and make changes to the final report if applicable.
•    The department will submit the final report to the legislature before the 2025 legislative session and post it to our website for interested parties.

Proposal documents from the legislature and applicant:

• Letter from Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee (PDF)
• Senate Bill 5411 (PDF)
• Applicant Report submitted by WANP (PDF).

For more information on the sunrise process and to view the criteria for a sunrise review, see our main sunrise webpage.

Mandated benefit sunrise reviews in progress

• None at this time.