No. HB 1029
Filed under Healthcare.
Maternal Health and Early Learning; Requires DOH to establish certain home visit program for expectant mothers; provides program requirements; authorizes AHCA to authorize reduced fees for applicant or licensee for certain birthing centers; removes acceptance criteria for birthing centers; requires department to provide blood pressure monitor & cuff to expectant mother for certain purposes; requires department to create certain educational materials; revises continuing education requirements for physicians to include review of certain Medicaid payments for certain persons.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDChildren become legally required to attend school starting at age five instead of six, while a separate provision removes the specific rule setting a September 1 cutoff for kindergarten admission eligibility.
The health department must create a home visiting program for expectant mothers with depression and substance abuse screening, mental health referrals, and a mandatory newborn care class, which health insurers and Medicaid must cover.
Every expectant mother must receive a free blood pressure monitor to screen for preeclampsia, and the rule limiting birth centers to patients with normal, low-risk pregnancies is repealed.
Doulas and midwives gain an explicit right to be present during childbirth inside any hospital, and child care facilities that get early learning coalition funding must follow a state-approved curriculum.
AIChildren must now attend school starting the year they turn five, using a February 1 cutoff, instead of six as under current law. This extends the mandatory attendance duty to an entire additional age cohort of Florida children.
AICurrent law lets a birth center accept only patients expected to have normal pregnancies, labors, and deliveries. That statutory floor is repealed, leaving client selection and risk-status criteria entirely to agency rulemaking.
AIA doula or midwife may now be present with their client during childbirth inside a hospital, and a parallel new section extends the same right specifically to rural hospitals.
AIThe health department must give every expectant mother a blood pressure monitor and cuff to watch for preeclampsia, plus any needed repairs or replacement parts, and must produce educational materials on using it.
AIThe health department must expand its home visit program to screen expectant mothers for depression and substance abuse, refer at-risk mothers for treatment, and ensure hospitals and birth centers offer a 3-hour newborn care class before discharge.
AIHealth insurance providers and Medicaid must provide coverage for the new expectant-mother home visit program, extending a mandated-coverage obligation to private plans and the state Medicaid program alike.
AIChild care facilities that receive early learning coalition support are now termed early learning centers, and the Department of Education must ensure each one delivers an approved curriculum at an appropriate pace.
AIThe Department of Children and Families must create incentives for early learning centers to stay open 24 hours for the children of first responders, health care practitioners, and other nontraditional-hour workers.