Briefly noted

• The IRS might soon give a green light to not-for-profit hospitals that want to take advantage of the Stark exception to help doctors acquire EHRs, according to HHS official Karen Bell (iHealthBeat, Feb. 27). There has been a question about whether such donations would violate the IRS' inurement rules.

• Massachusetts took the top honor this year in SureScripts' ranking of the ten states where e-prescribing is most advanced. The other states, in descending order, are Rhode Island, Nevada, Delaware, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, and Washington. Founded by the trade associations for independent and chain pharmacies, SureScripts aims to connect physician offices online with drugstores.

• RxHub, which supplies formulary and medication histories to e-prescribing physicians, announced that it now has access to prescription information records, via payers and PBMs, for 160 million patients.

• Allscripts plans to connect more than 60 medical devices to its EHR by using its new "universal application integrator." The integrator will work with Allscripts' Touchworks and Healthmatics EHRs.