AN ACT Relating to ensuring transparency in credentials and communications between patients and health care professionals;
SB 6166 is a Washington health care transparency bill that requires certain licensed health care professionals to clearly display and communicate their credentials during patient encounters. The bill generally requires providers in direct patient care settings to wear visible identification badges showing their name and credential, including the initials and title of any health care-related degree they hold. It also requires advertisements for health care services that name a license holder to identify the type of credential held by that person. The bill excludes license holders who work in non-patient-care settings and have no direct patient interactions from the badge requirement.
The bill also makes a series of related changes to professional conduct and licensing provisions. It expands or clarifies what may count as unprofessional conduct, including misrepresentation in obtaining or reinstating a license, false or misleading advertising, certain misconduct involving patient safety, and failure to cooperate with disciplinary authorities. It further adds specific provisions for physicians and osteopathic physicians about who may represent themselves as a physician or surgeon, and it directs hospitals, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, adult family homes, and ambulatory surgical facilities to issue updated badges as needed to comply with the new requirements. The bill states that health profession boards and commissions may not deviate from its requirements.
The bill would amend multiple sections of Washington’s Revised Code and add several new sections governing credential disclosure, professional titles, advertising, and disciplinary standards for health care license holders. Its practical effect is to impose a statewide credential-identification rule for many direct-care settings and to require facilities to support compliance by issuing updated badges when staff are hired, change names, receive new credentials, or begin new credentialing periods. It also affects how health care services are marketed by requiring credential disclosure when a named provider is advertised.
In addition to transparency requirements, the bill broadens the regulatory framework for unprofessional conduct and reinforces enforcement authority for licensing boards. Patients, health care employers, and licensed practitioners would be directly affected, especially in hospitals, long-term care facilities, outpatient surgery settings, and public-facing advertising. The bill is designed to reduce confusion about provider qualifications and to limit misleading use of titles such as doctor or physician.
The bill’s stated purpose and the legislative findings reflect strong support for transparency, patient understanding, and trust in the health care system. The overall tone of the measure is protective of patients and favorable toward clearer communication of credentials and roles within care teams. Because no committee transcripts or recorded votes were provided, there is no documented opposition or recorded floor sentiment in the supplied materials. Based on the text alone, the bill appears to have been framed as a patient-information and consumer-protection measure rather than a controversial policy change.
The main points of potential contention are the scope and administrative burden of the badge and advertising requirements, and the extent to which the bill regulates professional titles and communications. Health care professionals and facilities may be concerned about compliance costs, badge replacement logistics, and how the law applies to mixed clinical and nonclinical roles. Professional boards may also be sensitive to the bill’s instruction that they may not deviate from its requirements, which limits regulatory flexibility. Another possible area of dispute is the bill’s treatment of the title “doctor” and the rules governing who may represent themselves as a physician or surgeon, which could affect non-MD/DO clinicians and other doctorate-level professionals.