GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1991

S	1 

SENATE BILL 1080*

Short Title:  Infant Mortality Programs/Funds.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senators Walker; and Smith.
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Referred to:  Appropriations.
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June 2, 1992

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO CONTINUE THE STATE'S PROGRAMS TO PREVENT INFANT MORTALITY AND TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  (a)	Effective April 1, 1993, the Department of Human Resources, Division of Medical Assistance, shall provide medical coverage for parenting education for all Medicaid eligible families with children birth to three years of age.
(b)	There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Human Resources, Division of Medical Assistance, the sum of two hundred fifty-two thousand dollars ($252,000) for the 1992-93 fiscal year to provide the State share of the increased coverage for services mandated by this section.
Sec. 2.  (a)	There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Human Resources, Division of Medical Assistance, the sum of six hundred fifty thousand dollars ($650,000) for the 1992-93 fiscal year to develop a computerized management information system to track childhood screenings, immunizations, and treatment.
(b)	Effective April 1, 1993, there is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Human Resources, Division of Medical Assistance, the sum of three hundred eighty thousand dollars ($380,000) for the 1992-93 fiscal year to facilitate administration of the Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment Program.
Sec. 3.  The Department of Human Resources, Division of Medical Assistance, in conjunction with the Governor's Commission on the Reduction of Infant Mortality, the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, Division of Maternal and Child Health, the Department of Human Resources, Office of Rural Health and Resource Development, and other relevant community groups, shall conduct a study to determine the extent to which the lack of provider participation in the Medicaid program creates access barriers to pregnant women on Medicaid.  The study shall examine the extent of participation in the Medicaid program by obstetricians, family practitioners, and certified nurse midwives who provide prenatal or delivery services, as well as different methods of increasing provider participation.  The Division of Medical Assistance shall report its findings to the 1993 General Assembly no later than March 15, 1993.
Sec. 4.  (a)	There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Human Resources, Division of Social Services, the sum of five hundred twenty-one thousand nine hundred forty-four dollars ($521,944) for the 1992-93 fiscal year to pay for maternity care home placements.
(b)	There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Human Resources, Division of Social Services, the sum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for the 1992-93 fiscal year to help establish a maternity care home in Eastern North Carolina and pay for new placements in this home.  These funds will be used to match private foundation funding.
Sec. 5.  (a)	The Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, Division of Maternal and Child Health, in conjunction with the Department of Human Resources, Division of Social Services, Division of Medical Assistance, and Office of Rural Health and Resource Development, the Child Fatality Task Force, and other relevant community groups, shall develop parenting class protocols which will focus on the care of newborns, early growth and development, the importance of preventive health care services, early self-esteem, injury prevention, and stress reduction; and shall develop criteria for determining families at risk of child abuse and neglect.
(b)	There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, Division of Maternal and Child Health, the sum of fifty thousand ($50,000) for the 1992-93 fiscal year to cover the development costs of the parenting programs mandated by this program.
(c)	Effective April 1, 1993, there is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, the sum of one hundred thirty thousand dollars ($130,000) for the 1992-93 fiscal year to cover the costs of parent education for non-Medicaid eligible families with children under age three who are at risk of child abuse and neglect.
Sec. 6.  (a)	There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, Division of Maternal and Child Health, the sum of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) for the 1992-93 fiscal year to establish four comprehensive adolescent health care demonstration projects.  To receive funding, each project must provide medical, preventive, and mental health services, and shall be developed with the participation of the public schools, the health department, the area mental health programs, the community migrant and rural health centers, and private physicians.
(b)	There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, Division of Maternal and Child Health, the sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for the 1992-93 fiscal year to contract with The University of North Carolina Center on Early Adolescence to provide technical assistance and to evaluate the four projects, and to assist other counties in developing adolescent health care services.
Sec. 7.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, Division of Epidemiology, the sum of one million dollars ($1,000,000) for the 1992-93 fiscal year to pay for all of the childhood vaccinations provided at community, migrant and rural health centers for non-Medicaid eligible children, and to cover the costs of vaccinations provided to non-Medicaid eligible medically indigent children by private physicians.
Sec. 8.  Funds appropriated to the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, Division of Maternal and Child Health, to inform the public on the dangers to the mother and developing fetus of alcohol, cocaine, and other substances, shall be used by the Department to support the activities of the FIRST STEP CAMPAIGN to inform the public about substance abuse and other high-risk behaviors that contribute to infant mortality and morbidity.
Sec. 9.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the North Carolina Coalition on Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) for the 1992-93 fiscal year as a grant-in-aid to provide technical assistance to local adolescent pregnancy prevention projects in reducing the high incidence of infant mortality resulting from low birth-weight babies born to adolescents.
Sec. 10.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Public Health, the sum of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) for the 1992-93 fiscal year to conduct a study of the extent of hunger and unmet health needs of the children in North Carolina.  The School of Public Health shall report its interim findings to the 1993 General Assembly no later than March 15, 1993, and its final results to the 1994 General Assembly no later than June 1, 1994.
Sec. 11.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1992.