H. B. 4327

(By Delegates Hatfield, D. Poling, Brown

and Staggers)

[Introduced January 27, 2012; referred to the

Committee on Health and Human Resources then the Judiciary.]

A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new article, designated §16-44-1 and §16-44-2, all relating to requiring pulse oximetry testing for newborns.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

    That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new article, designated §16-44-1 and §16-44-2, all to read as follows:

ARTICLE 44. THE PULSE OXIMETRY NEWBORN TESTING ACT.

§16-44-1. Legislative findings.

    The Legislature finds and declares that:

    (1) Congenital heart defects are structural abnormalities of the heart that are present at birth; congenital heart defects range in severity from simple problems such as holes between chambers of the heart, to severe malformations, such as the complete absence of one or more chambers or valves; some critical congenital heart defects can cause severe and life-threatening symptoms which require intervention within the first days of life;

    (2) According to the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services' Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children, congenital heart disease affects approximately seven to nine of every thousand live births in the United States and Europe; the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that congenital heart defects are the leading cause of infant death due to birth defects;

    (3) Current methods for detecting congenital heart defects generally include prenatal ultrasound screening and repeated clinical examinations; while prenatal ultrasound screenings can detect some major congenital heart defects, these screenings, alone, identify less than half of all congenital heart defect cases, and critical congenital heart defect cases are often missed during routine clinical exams performed prior to a newborn's discharge from a birthing facility;

    (4) Pulse oximetry is a noninvasive test that estimates the percentage of hemoglobin in blood that is saturated with oxygen; when performed on a newborn a minimum of twenty-four hours after birth, pulse oximetry screening is often more effective at detecting critical, life-threatening congenital heart defects which otherwise go undetected by current screening methods; newborns with abnormal pulse oximetry results require immediate confirmatory testing and intervention; and

    (5) Many newborn lives could potentially be saved by earlier detection and treatment of congenital heart defects if birthing facilities in the state were required to perform this simple, noninvasive newborn screening in conjunction with current congenital heart defect screening methods.

§16-44-2. Pulse oximetry screening required; definition; rules.

    (a) The Commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health shall require each birthing facility licensed by the Department of Health and Human Resources to perform a pulse oximetry screening on every newborn in its care, a minimum of twenty-four hours after birth.

    (b) As used in this article, "birthing facility" means an inpatient or ambulatory health care facility licensed by the Department of Health and Human Resources that provides birthing and newborn care services.

    (c) The commissioner shall adopt procedural rules and propose legislative rules for legislative approval, in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, that are necessary to carry out the purposes of this article.

    NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require each birthing facility licensed by the Department of Health and Human Resources to perform a pulse oximetry screening for congenital birth defects on every newborn in its care, a minimum of 24 hours after birth.

    This article is new; therefore, it has been completely underscored.