House Bill 1693 (2025) proposes amending RCW 18.360.090 to add a new statutory exemption that would allow a person working at a WIC clinic (the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children) to administer hematological tests that are limited to sampling by heel-stick, toe-stick, or finger-stick. The amendment inserts this WIC clinic exemption as item (6) while retaining the statute’s existing listed exemptions for licensed persons and various federal and institutional programs. This is a modification of existing law (an added exemption), not the creation of a new crime or a penalty change. The bill text provided was filed by request of the Department of Health and was read for the first time on 01/29/25. It cites amending RCW 18.360.090 (and references 2012 c 153 s 10 in the amendment caption). Important details are not included in the extracted text: no effective date is given, and the amendment does not specify training, supervision, certification, documentation, enforcement, or liability rules for WIC staff performing the tests. The text also does not define which individuals qualify as a “person working at a WIC clinic” (for example, whether volunteers or contractors are included), nor does it show whether other sections of the bill are part of the measure.

If enacted, WIC clinics would be explicitly allowed to have their staff perform simple blood-based hematological tests using heel-sticks, toe-sticks, or finger-sticks, so those tests could be done on-site rather than sending people to other clinics or labs. That will most directly affect WIC programs and their employees by adding a new routine responsibility that could speed up testing and reduce referral costs for clients, but it will also likely require clinics to obtain supplies, set up procedures, and absorb staff time and training costs even though the bill does not specify training, certification, or supervision requirements. Because the bill text does not say who counts as a “person working at a WIC clinic,” whether volunteers or contractors are included, how staff must be trained or supervised, or what liability rules apply, clinics will need to make local decisions about who performs the tests and how to document and manage quality and risk; those unresolved details create uncertainty about ongoing costs, insurance exposure, and operational planning.