Texas would stop charging sales tax on the systems doctors and hospitals use to store and share medical records under a rule change the state comptroller's office says is published in the Texas Register on Friday, Oct. 30. Publication opens a 30-day window for the public to comment before the change can be adopted.
Today, the state applies sales tax to the fees physicians and hospitals pay for access to online medical records, the comptroller's office said in announcing the proposal this week. The office argues that adds to what patients ultimately pay for care.
What would change
The proposal amends Rule 3.342, which governs how the state taxes information services. It would spell out that the following are neither taxable information services nor taxable data processing:
- electronic health record systems
- electronic medical record systems
- patient portals
- other health care technology used to keep, view or share medical records
Under the current rule, which the office says was set by earlier leadership of the agency, that technology has been treated as taxable.
Comptroller Don Huffines ordered staff earlier this month to draft the amendment. "A tax that quietly penalizes people for accessing their own medical information has no place in our system," he said in the release.
The announcement does not estimate how much tax revenue the state collects on these services or how much it would give up.
