Regulations requiring hospitals to more quickly send newborns' blood samples to a state laboratory for testing cleared a legislative panel Tuesday.
The regulations, proposed by the state Board of Health in July, are meant to allow for the speedier identification and treatment of rare genetic disorders.
The rules would require hospitals to send the blood samples, collected within 72 hours of a child's birth, to the state Department of Health's laboratory within one business day after the samples are collected.
Current regulations allow hospitals to wait up to 48 hours before submitting the samples. A sample is considered "submitted" once it's in the mail or dropped off at a county health unit, even if it doesn't arrive at the laboratory until a day or two later.
"The faster you can analyze the specimens and get that information back to the doctor about that newborn, the more [effectively] treatments can be started for that child," Robert Brech, chief financial officer for the Department of Health, told lawmakers on the House and Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor committees Tuesday.
The new regulations also would add severe combined immunodeficiency disorders, known as SCIDs, to the list of disorders for which blood samples are screened. Currently the samples are tested for 28 disorders.
The fee for the testing would increase from $89.25 to $121. About $10 of the increase would pay for the additional testing, and the remainder would allow the department's laboratory to continue operating on Saturdays, as it has been since early last month, Brech said.
The fee is paid by hospitals, which pass on the cost to patients. For most patients, the cost is covered by insurance or Medicaid.
In November 2013, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that thousands of samples collected nationwide each year arrive at laboratories five or more days after they are collected.
One Arkansas baby's blood sample was not tested until 3½ weeks after the baby was born in Paragould, the newspaper reported.
As a result of the test, the baby was diagnosed with galactosemia, a disorder that prevented his body from digesting galactose, a sugar in breast milk and traditional formula.
By the time the boy's mother learned of the diagnosis, he had already spent two weeks at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, where he was rushed by ambulance after developing a rash and swollen stomach, the newspaper reported.
At the time of the newspaper report, Arkansas officials reported that only 13 percent of newborns' blood samples made it to the lab within 48 hours after collection in the year that ended June 30, 2013.
Last month, the Health Department reported that about 50 percent of samples reached the lab within the 48-hour target window.
With no members objecting Tuesday, the public health committees deemed the new regulations "reviewed."
The rules are expected to go to the Legislative Council's rules and regulations committee in December and to the Board of Health for final approval in January.
Metro on 11/26/2014