| TO: | Honorable Lois W. Kolkhorst, Chair, House Committee on Public Health |
| FROM: | John S. O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB1240 by Villarreal (Relating to information required to be provided to parents of an infant.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted |
The bill requires hospitals, birthing centers, physicians, nurse midwives, and midwives who provide prenatal care to women during gestation or at delivery of an infant to provide the woman, if the woman is a Medicaid recipient, and the father of the infant, if possible, or another adult caregiver with a resource guide including information in both English and Spanish relating to the development, health, and safety of a child from birth until age five; a resource guide provided on the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) website or an alternative guide may be used.
DSHS is required to establish guidelines for the provision of this information, to make available on their website a printable version of the required resource guide, and to make the required resource guide available for distribution to the specified providers. DSHS is authorized to make available online and distribute an existing publication created by another health and human services agency as the required resource guide.
The Health and Human Services Commission is required to develop performance measures to evaluate the effectiveness of the resource guide and to submit a biennial report on the effectiveness to the legislature. It is assumed that any cost to the state will be minimal and can be absorbed within existing resources of the affected agencies.
| Source Agencies: | 537 State Health Services, Department of
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, CL, LR
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