State law requires drug manufactures to pay all administrative and operational costs associated with Safe Medication Return. This includes Department of Health costs related to statutorily required oversight, enforcement, evaluation, and education.
Department fee revenue has not covered department costs since state fiscal year 2024.
- Staffing
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Department Safe Medication Return staff include two full-time positions, a program manager and a compliance manager. Some supervisory and administrative support time is also required, but, due to funding constraints, this is currently being absorbed by other programs. Staffing costs including salaries, benefits, office space and furniture, software, and equipment like computers and phones.
- Contracts required by law
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Contractual costs in state fiscal year 2026 included a post-implementation survey (PDF) performed by the Washington Poison Center and an expedited review of the department’s costs and fees related to Safe Medication Return. These were one-time contracts required by statute so these costs will not be ongoing.
- Goods and Services
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Statute requires the department to use our standard educational methods to promote safe storage and appropriate disposal of household medication; and to promote the website and toll-free phone number people can use to find Safe Medication Return services and information (medtakebackwashington.org) and 844-4-TakeBack (844-633-7765) TTY 711.
Goods and services includes printing and distribution of promotional material, costs related to awareness and use surveys the department is required to conduct every two years, and legal consultation related to Safe Medication Return.
- Indirect Costs
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The department uses a federally approved indirect rate to fund department leadership, IT, communications, fiscal support, and similar costs that support the entire department. These are shared by programs as a percentage of their other costs.
- Fluctuation in department costs
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The department’s annual costs change year to year due to changes in staffing costs, contract costs, goods and services, and indirect costs.
- Program operator fees
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The department has two statutory caps on what it can charge operators in annual fees; it cannot charge a program operator more than the department’s costs related to the department’s Safe Medication Return-related responsibilities, and it cannot charge a program operator more than ten percent of the highest expenditures reported by any program operator in their last annual report.
The department estimates its costs by determining the projected budget for the current fiscal year. It then calculates ten percent of the operator’s most recently reported expenditures. The annual fee is lowest of these two numbers.