Newborn screening program: critical congenital heart disease.

Existing law provides for the Newborn and Infant Hearing Screening, Tracking, and Intervention program, under which general acute care hospitals with licensed perinatal services, as specified, are required to administer to newborns a hearing screening test for the identification of hearing loss, as prescribed, using protocols developed by the State Department of Health Care Services, or its designee. This bill would, beginning July 1, 2013, require a general acute care hospital that has a licensed perinatal service to offer to parents of a newborn, prior to discharge, a pulse oximetry test for the identification of critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) , and would require the department to issue guidance stating that hospitals perform this test in a manner consistent with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for CCHD screening. This bill would require these hospitals to develop a CCHD screening program, as prescribed.