Washington’s Senate Bill SB 5387 (SB 5387) would tighten already strict laws on non-medical healthcare business arrangements, especially involving control over clinical decisions. Specifically, the bill includes the following:
- Non-licensed individuals, corporations, or entities cannot own or control healthcare practices or employ licensed healthcare providers unless explicitly permitted under state law
- Under existing law, shareholders, officers, and directors of professional service entities do not need to be licensed in Washington, but SB5387 would require Washington-licensed healthcare providers to retain control of such entities by holding a majority of the voting shares, serving as the majority of directors, and occupying key leadership roles; the bill may even require owners to actively practice at the facility
- Shareholders, directors and officers of healthcare practices would be prohibited from ownership in an MSO, or serving as an officer, director, employee or contractor, or receiving significant financial compensation from the MSO in return for ownership or management of the professional entity.
This bill would make it far more difficult to use traditional PC-MSO models currently permitted under Washington law.