Stricken language would be deleted from and underlined language would be added to present law.
Act 141 of the Regular Session
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State of Arkansas 1
95th General Assembly A Bill 2
Regular Session, 2025 SENATE BILL 137 3
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By: Senator J. Boyd 5
By: Representative Achor 6
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For An Act To Be Entitled 8
AN ACT TO PERMIT HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS TO MAINTAIN 9
MEDICAL RECORDS IN AN ELECTRONIC FORMAT; AND FOR 10
OTHER PURPOSES. 11
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Subtitle 14
TO PERMIT HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS TO 15
MAINTAIN MEDICAL RECORDS IN AN 16
ELECTRONIC FORMAT. 17
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BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS: 19
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SECTION 1. Arkansas Code Title 20, Chapter 9, Subchapter 1, is amended 21
to add an additional section to read as follows: 22
20-9-106. Electronic medical records — Definitions. 23
(a) As used in this section: 24
(1) "Healthcare provider" means: 25
(A) An individual who is licensed, certified, or otherwise 26
authorized by a licensing authority of this state to administer healthcare 27
services in the ordinary course of his or her business or practice; or 28
(B) A healthcare facility including without limitation a 29
hospital, pharmacy, long -term care facility, office of a healthcare 30
professional, or a hospice facility; 31
(2) "Medical record" means a patient’s health record, including 32
without limitation evaluations, diagnoses, prognoses, laboratory reports, X -33
rays, prescriptions, and other technical information used in assessing the 34
patient’s condition, or the pertinent portion of the record relating to a 35
specific condition or a summary of the record; and 36 SB137
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(3) "Patient" means a person who has received healthcare 1
services from a healthcare provider. 2
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of the law to the contrary, a 3
healthcare provider may, in its sole discretion, create, maintain, transmit, 4
receive, and store medical records in an electronic format and may, in its 5
sole discretion, temporarily or permanently convert records into an 6
electronic format. 7
(c)(1) A healthcare provider is not required to maintain separate 8
tangible copies of electronically stored medical records. 9
(2) However, the healthcare provider shall maintain 10
electronically stored medical records in a legible and retrievable form, 11
including adequate data backup. 12
(d) This section is subject to all applicable federal laws governing 13
the security and confidentiality of a patient’s personal health information. 14
(e) A tangible copy of a medical record reproduced from an 15
electronically stored record shall be considered an original for purposes of 16
providing copies to patients or other authorized parties and for introduction 17
of the medical record into evidence in administrative or court proceedings. 18
(f)(1) Except as provided otherwise under federal law, upon receiving 19
a request for a copy of a medical record from a patient or an authorized 20
person, a healthcare provider shall provide copies of the medical record in 21
either tangible or electronically stored form. 22
(2) Except as provided otherwise under federal law, if a 23
healthcare provider is audited by a health benefit plan, a pharmacy benefit 24
manager, or a third-party entity involved in health benefits, the auditor 25
shall accept an electronic version of the medical record in lieu of a 26
physical medical record. 27
(g) This section applies to psychiatric, psychological, or other 28
mental health medical records of a patient. 29
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APPROVED: 2/25/25 32
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