AB 2418

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health and sets forth its powers and duties, including, but not limited to, implementation and administration of a community‑based system of perinatal care for eligible women and infants. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to license and regulate specified health facilities, including a general acute care hospital, a special hospital, and other types of specialized facilities. Existing law defines a perinatal unit as a maternity and newborn service of a hospital for the provision of care during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum and neonatal periods, as specified. Existing law requires a general acute care hospital or special hospital that has a perinatal unit to develop and implement a program relating to maternal mental health conditions, including, but not limited to, postpartum depression. Existing law requires the program to include, among other things, education and information about maternal mental health conditions for women, families, and hospital perinatal unit employees, as specified. This bill would require the State Department of Public Health to develop and regularly update a list of perinatal hospice providers and programs in the state, post the list on its internet website, and make the list available in written format, upon request, to all hospitals with a perinatal unit. The bill would require a hospital to inform a patient who receives a fatal fetal diagnosis about options relating to perinatal hospice, and to inform a patient who experiences a miscarriage or stillbirth, or who receives a fatal fetal diagnosis, of the options available to them with respect to matters, including, but not limited to, time allowed to be spent with the baby after delivery and availability of medical testing of the fetus.