No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section requires hospitals, critical access hospitals, and rural emergency hospitals participating in Medicare to develop and implement discharge plans for any individual admitted who is pregnant, experiencing signs or symptoms consistent with labor, and expected to be discharged prior to delivery, beginning January 1, 2027. The discharge plan must be included in the individual’s medical record, discussed with the individual (or representative) prior to discharge, and meet standards that include a clinical justification for discharge, an assessment of travel distance and time to the facility, verification of reliable transportation, identification of a secondary hospital or facility for labor and delivery services, review and approval by a registered professional nurse or other qualified personnel, and confirmation that the information was provided in the individual’s primary language and understood. The provision includes a rule of construction preserving existing discharge planning requirements and obligations to furnish emergency services under Federal or State law, including EMTALA.
This section establishes minimum performance milestones for recipients of rural maternal and obstetric care training demonstration grants under section 764 of the Public Health Service Act beginning with grants awarded for fiscal year 2027. The milestones must include requirements related to the percentage of all staff trained or receiving refresher training with grant support. This section also expands reporting requirements by directing the Secretary to submit annual reports to Congress and make them publicly available beginning January 1, 2027, that include updates on prior report elements, a list of grant recipients and amounts, training delivery formats (in-person, virtual, or asynchronous), geographical coverage, number of providers trained, and patient-level metrics such as changes in clinical outcomes, patient experience, and racial disparities.
This section establishes a multi-center implementation science initiative for maternal health, to be administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with the Directors of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Institutes of Health. The initiative evaluates the effects of different training models for health care professionals (including in-person, virtual, simulation, and cohort-based) on provider behavior, patient outcomes, and maternal health disparities. As part of the initiative, this section directs the Secretary to develop, maintain, and publicly post on the Department of Health and Human Services website an interagency maternal health dashboard containing maternal health outcome metrics from agencies within the Department.