S. 380 — Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act

This section expands the purposes of grants under Section 330O of the Public Health Service Act—awarded by the Director of the Office of Rural Health Policy to expand access to and improve the quality of health care services in rural areas—to include developing and facilitating access to an evidence-based program to train practitioners in rural health care facilities without dedicated obstetric units to provide emergency obstetric services during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or the postpartum period (e.g., preparing for, identifying, stabilizing, and transferring patients experiencing obstetric hemorrhage, severe hypertension, cardiac conditions, perinatal mental health conditions, substance use, sepsis, or other conditions). It requires recipients of such grants to assess obstetric training needs in those facilities, develop the program in consultation with representatives from national medical societies with rural expertise in gynecology and obstetrics, emergency medicine, family medicine, and anesthesiology, and facilitate access via regional training partnerships and technical assistance. The section authorizes $5 million for these grants for FY2026 through 2028.

This section establishes a grant program under the Public Health Service Act to support obstetric services in rural health care settings by integrating readiness training curricula, building workforce capacity, and purchasing equipment to manage obstetric emergencies. Eligible entities include rural hospitals, critical access hospitals, and rural emergency hospitals located in maternity care health professional shortage areas (i.e., primary care health professional shortage areas with maternity care shortages) or rural areas, or consortia that include at least two such entities; funds may be used to (1) purchase equipment and provide technical assistance for training non-obstetric practitioners in obstetric emergency response, (2) acquire equipment for emergency preparation and patient transfer, (3) develop transfer protocols and network engagement, (4) hire or pay personnel, (5) offer training such as clinical rotations and fellowships for non-obstetric professionals, and (6) implement interdisciplinary team-based simulation training. The section authorizes $15 million for FY2026 through 2029.

This section establishes a pilot program under which the HHS Secretary, acting through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Administrator and in consultation with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator, awards grants or cooperative agreements to states, political subdivisions, Indian Tribes, and Tribal organizations to support development of or improvements to statewide or regional maternal health care telehealth access programs. These programs must (1) form networks of maternal health care teams providing urgent consultative support to rural non-obstetric settings of care; (2) assess consultation needs in such settings; (3) use credentialed physicians able to consult on conditions including labor, delivery, obstetric hemorrhage, severe hypertension in pregnancy or postpartum, pregnancy-related cardiac conditions, perinatal mental health or substance use disorders, and sepsis; (4) offer rapid telephone or telehealth consultations; and (5) provide information on and referrals to maternal health, specialty, community, and behavioral health services. Awardees must submit a report to the Secretary 18 months after receiving funds, and the program authorizes $5 million for FY2026 through FY2029.

This section directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a study that maps maternity ward closures and regional patterns of patient transport and examines models for regional partnerships for rural obstetric care, and to submit a report on the results to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the House Committees on Energy and Commerce and Education and Workforce not later than three years after enactment.