SD26 - Report of the Legislative Task Force on Infant Mortality

  • Published: 1986
  • Author: Department of Health and Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and Department of Social Services
  • Enabling Authority: Senate Joint Resolution 39 (Regular Session, 1984)

Executive Summary:
In 1984, the Virginia General Assembly passed Senate Joint Resolution No. 39, which requested the Departments of Health, Mental Health and Mental Retardation and Social Services to jointly conduct a study of the prevention of infant mortality with an emphasis on the minority population. In 1985, the Legislature continued this study via Senate Joint Resolution No. 106, changing What had been an agency study to a legislative study with the appointment of five legislators. The Legislative Task Force was asked to determine appropriate interventions which might be employed to reduce the high rate of infant mortality and to review the recommendations of the Southern Regional Task Force on Infant Mortality for potential implementation in Virginia.

HISTORY OF TASK FORCE ACTIVITIES

The Legislative Task Force began its study with a series of public hearings throughout the Commonwealth, one each in Tidewater, Southwest, and Central Virginia to solicit the public's perspectives of the nature of the problem and possible strategies for the intervention and remediation of the high rate of infant mortality in the State.

Testimony presented at the public hearings specified the following needs:

• Reducing the high rate of teenage pregnancy through such projects as sex education, school-based health clinics and outreach programs for teens.

• Establishing a mechanism to permit the follow-up of former neonatal intensive care infants.

• Educating consumers to obtain good prenatal care.

• Establishing better coordination between private and public perinatal services at the state level.

• Developing continuity of care in order to provide comparable care to both Medicaid and private-paying obstetrical patients.

• Marketing existing maternal and infant health programs and services and making such services accessible to the target populations.

• Reviewing the death certificate of each infant and conducting a medical records review of each of the mothers to isolate any factors which may have contributed to the death.

• Increasing the number of obstetricians in Southwest Virginia.

• Providing quality and accessible prenatal care services and other support services.

• Attracting obstetricians who can provide the necessary care for high-risk obstetrical patients.

• Providing a mechanism for follow-up care for high-risk mothers and infants.

• Increasing the Medicaid reimbursement level to obstetricians and pediatricians for the care of indigent and Medicaid patients.

• Emphasizing sex education to reduce the number of teen pregnancies and subsequent medical problems due to high-risk pregnancies.

• Improving prenatal care and it accessibility.

• Alleviating environmental factors which contribute to high risk pregnancies and infant mortality.

• Increasing the public subsidy to families with dependent children.

• Reviewing federal and state regulations which provide services to pregnant women and their children to clarify eligibility requirements and to determine the adequacy of services and financial benefits.

• Improving the timeliness of local services offered at the local level.

In addition, the Legislative Task Force requested its staff to conduct a fifty-state survey to determine other states' programs on infant mortality, to inventory the Commonwealth to determine the kinds of programs and services in operation and being developed to remediate the problem, and to identify exemplary programs which might be appropriately implemented in Virginia. The staff also was asked to develop a proposal which would approach resolution of the problem of infant mortality from three perspectives: the ideal, the feasible and the minimum. The staff's findings and proposal were presented to the Task Force for its consideration.

Throughout the course of its study, the Task Force followed the activities of both the Southern Regional Task Force on Infant Mortality and the Virginia Task Force on Infant Mortality. In reviewing "For the Children of Tomorrow," the final report of the Southern Regional Task Force, the Legislative Task Force found that many of the recommendations in the report paralleled its tentative conclusions. Consequently, the consensus of the Task Force was to adopt those recommendations which were appropriate to Virginia's needs.