Washington State Upholds Ban on EHRs by Labs

The Washington State Legislature has passed legislation upholding an attorney general opinion that labs cannot donate electronic health record (EHR) software to physicians. The state attorney general in late 2012 ruled that a donation by a laboratory to a referring physician of 85 percent of the software cost of the physician’s EHR system, when the physician either has a continued referral arrangement with the laboratory or subsequently initiates a referral relationship with the laboratory, violates the Washington anti-rebate statute. The Washington State Hospital Association attempted to void the opinion by deferring state law to federal but subsequently agreed to legislation (SB 5601) that expressly ensures that all provisions of the Washington state anti-kickback law, including those forbidding such donations, continue to apply to clinical laboratories.