Bill Text: NY S06045 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced
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Bill Title: Establishes a fetal and infant mortality review board to study fetal and infant mortality and morbidity and make recommendations on policies, best practices, and strategies to reduce fetal and infant mortality and morbidity within New York city.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-06-07 - COMMITTED TO RULES [S06045 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-S06045-Introduced.html
Bill Title: Establishes a fetal and infant mortality review board to study fetal and infant mortality and morbidity and make recommendations on policies, best practices, and strategies to reduce fetal and infant mortality and morbidity within New York city.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-06-07 - COMMITTED TO RULES [S06045 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-S06045-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6045 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN SENATE March 27, 2023 ___________ Introduced by Sen. BAILEY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Cities 1 AN ACT to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to establishing a fetal infant mortality review board The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The administrative code of the city of New York is amended 2 by adding a new section 17-166.1 to read as follows: 3 § 17-166.1 Fetal infant mortality review board. a. As used in this 4 section, unless the context requires otherwise: 5 (1) "Review board" means the fetal infant mortality review board 6 established by this section. 7 (2) "Fetal infant death" means fetal, neonatal, and infant deaths 8 within one year of birth. 9 (3) "Severe fetal infant morbidity" or "morbidity" means unexpected 10 outcomes of pregnancy, labor, or delivery that result in significant 11 short- or long-term consequences to a child's health. 12 b. There is hereby established in the department the fetal infant 13 mortality review board for the purpose of reviewing fetal infant deaths 14 and fetal infant morbidity and developing and disseminating findings, 15 recommendations, and best practices to contribute to the prevention of 16 fetal infant mortality and morbidity. The review board shall assess the 17 cause of death, factors leading to death and preventability for each 18 fetal infant death reviewed and, in the discretion of the review board, 19 cases of severe fetal infant morbidity, and shall develop and dissem- 20 inate strategies for reducing the risk of fetal infant mortality and 21 morbidity, including risk resulting from racial, economic, or other 22 disparities. The commissioner may delegate the authority to conduct 23 maternal mortality reviews. 24 c. (1) The members of the review board shall be comprised of multidis- 25 ciplinary experts in the field of fetal infant mortality, fetal, neona- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD10351-01-3S. 6045 2 1 tal and infant health and public health, and shall include health care 2 professionals or other experts who serve and are representative of the 3 racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity of the city of New York and, 4 to the extent possible, the medically underserved areas of the city of 5 New York or areas of the city of New York with disproportionately high 6 occurrences of fetal infant mortality or morbidity. 7 (2) The review board shall be composed of at least fifteen members, 8 all of whom shall be appointed by the commissioner. 9 (3) The terms of the review board members shall be three years. The 10 commissioner may choose to reappoint review board members to additional 11 three-year terms. 12 (4) A majority of the appointed membership of the review board, but no 13 less than three, shall constitute a quorum. 14 (5) When any member of the review board fails to attend three consec- 15 utive regular meetings, unless good cause is shown for such absence, 16 that membership may be deemed vacant for purposes of the appointment of 17 a successor. 18 (6) Meetings of the review board shall be held at least twice a year 19 but may be held more frequently as deemed necessary, subject to request 20 of the department. 21 (7) Members of the review board shall be indemnified under section 22 seventeen of the public officers law or section fifty-k of the general 23 municipal law, as the case may be. 24 (8) Members of the review board shall not be compensated for their 25 participation on the review board but shall receive reimbursement for 26 their ordinary and necessary expenses of participation. 27 (9) Membership on the review board shall not disqualify any person 28 from holding any public office or employment. 29 d. (1) The commissioner may request and shall receive upon request 30 from any department, division, board, bureau, commission, local health 31 department or other agency of the state or political subdivision thereof 32 or any public authority, such information, including but not limited to 33 death records, medical records, autopsy reports, toxicology reports, 34 hospital discharge records, birth records and any other information that 35 will help the department under this section to properly carry out its 36 functions, powers and duties. The commissioner may request and shall 37 receive upon request from any department, division, board, commission or 38 other agency under the authority of the city of New York as well as 39 hospitals established pursuant to article twenty-eight of the public 40 health law, birthing facilities, medical examiners, coroners and coroner 41 physicians and any other facility providing services associated with 42 fetal infant mortality or fetal infant morbidity, such information, 43 including, but not limited to, death records, medical records, autopsy 44 reports, toxicology reports, hospital discharge records, birth records 45 and any other information that will help the department under this 46 section to properly carry out its functions, powers and duties. 47 (2) The commissioner shall receive and may solicit voluntary informa- 48 tion, including oral or written statements, relating to any fetal infant 49 death and case of severe fetal infant morbidity, from any family member 50 or other interested party relating to any case that may come before the 51 review board. Oral statements received under this paragraph shall be 52 transcribed or summarized in writing. The commissioner shall transmit 53 that information to the review board considering the case. 54 (3) Before transmitting any information to the review board, the 55 commissioner shall remove all personal identifying information of the 56 fetus or infant, parents of the fetus or infant, health care practition-S. 6045 3 1 er or practitioners, or anyone else individually named in such informa- 2 tion, as well as the hospital or facility that treated the fetus or 3 infant, and any other information such as geographic location that may 4 inadvertently identify the fetus or infant, fetus or infant's family, 5 practitioner, or facility. This paragraph shall not preclude the trans- 6 mitting of information to the review board that is reasonably necessary 7 to enable the review board to perform an appropriate review under this 8 section. 9 e. The review board: 10 (1) shall collect and perform case reviews of fetal and infant deaths; 11 (2) shall make and report findings and recommendations to the commis- 12 sioner regarding the cause of death, factors leading to death, and 13 preventability of each fetal infant death case, and each case of severe 14 fetal infant morbidity reviewed by the review board, by reviewing rele- 15 vant information for each case in the city of New York and consulting 16 with experts as needed to evaluate the information for each death; 17 (3) shall develop and deliver to the commissioner recommendations on: 18 (A) issues of severe fetal infant morbidity; 19 (B) addressing social determinants of fetal infant health, including 20 racial, economic or other historical and contemporary injustices which 21 lead to disparities in fetal infant outcomes; 22 (C) policies, best practices, and strategies to reduce fetal infant 23 mortality and morbidity; 24 (D) methods of improving services and resources; and 25 (E) methods of implementing continuous quality improvement in fetal 26 infant mortality and morbidity; 27 (4) shall issue an annual public report on its findings and recommen- 28 dations and may also issue public reports more frequently; 29 (5) shall implement needs assessment, quality assurance and policy 30 development at the local level, which are essential to public health 31 functions; 32 (6) shall identify and address systemic community conditions contrib- 33 uting to fetal infant deaths; 34 (7) shall implement a surveillance system to monitor incidence, etiol- 35 ogies, and contributing factors and which can describe effects of health 36 care system change; 37 (8) shall identify system wide challenges to improving fetal infant 38 health care; 39 (9) shall assess, plan, improve, and monitor the service systems and 40 community resources that support and promote the health and well-being 41 of women, fetuses, infants, and families; 42 (10) may, in addition to the findings and recommendations made under 43 this subdivision, and consistent with all applicable confidentiality 44 protections, bring any particular matter to the attention of the commis- 45 sioner; and 46 (11) may request and shall receive the assistance of the commissioner 47 in carrying out its functions. 48 f. The commissioner and the review board shall each keep confidential 49 any information collected or received under this section that includes 50 personal identifying information of the fetus or infant, the fetus or 51 infant's parents, health care practitioner or practitioners, or anyone 52 else individually named in such information, as well as the hospital or 53 facility that treated the fetus or infant, and any other information 54 such as geographic location that may inadvertently identify the fetus or 55 infant, the fetus or infant's parents, practitioner, or facility, and 56 shall use the information provided or received under this section solelyS. 6045 4 1 for the purposes of improvement of the quality of fetal infant health 2 care and to prevent fetal infant mortality and morbidity. This subdivi- 3 sion shall not preclude the transmitting of information to the review 4 board that is reasonably necessary to enable the review board to perform 5 an appropriate review under this section. All records received, meetings 6 conducted, reports, except those public reports required to be issued by 7 the review board by this section, and records made and maintained and 8 all books and papers obtained by the review board shall be confidential 9 and shall not be made open or available, including under article six of 10 the public officers law, and shall be limited to review board members as 11 well as those authorized by the commissioner. Such information shall not 12 be discoverable or admissible as evidence in any action in any court or 13 before any other tribunal, board, agency or person. 14 g. The commissioner may use the recommendations and findings of the 15 review board to develop guidance and other actions relating to best 16 practices, and shall disseminate information relating to that guidance 17 and other actions to appropriate health care providers. 18 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
