AUSTIN (KXAN) — A new bill filed aims to improve the transparency of maternal death data that the state collects in a biennial report. This follows the delayed launch of this yr’s report.
Rep. Shawn Thierry, D-Houston, filed the invoice after filing maternal mortality registry bills within the last legislative session and the session before. Those payments didn’t move.
House Bill 663 would require reporting sure maternal mortality information to the Texas Department of State Health Services and making a workgroup for a maternal mortality and morbidity data registry. The registry would accumulate affected person information and mixture stories on the well being standing, well being behaviors and repair supply wants of maternal sufferers, the invoice says.
This yr’s maternal death data was not launched by the Sept. 1 deadline mandated by state regulation. But the regulation doesn’t say what occurs when the deadline will not be met. The Department of State Health Services said in October that the data is anticipated to be launched earlier than the upcoming legislative session. Previously, the data was anticipated to be launched earlier than summer season.
“Without this report, essentially, my colleagues and I don’t know whether we’re bringing a garden hose to put out a flame or whether we need ten fire trucks to put out a four-alarm fire,” Thierry beforehand advised KXAN. “And as I’ve said, right now, all we know is that DSHS has cut off water.”
The Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee releases the biennial report. The group research and evaluations:
- Cases of pregnancy-related deaths;
- Trends, charges, or disparities in pregnancy-related deaths and extreme maternal morbidity;
- Health situations and elements that disproportionately have an effect on probably the most at-risk populations; and
- Best practices and applications working in different states which have diminished charges of deaths associated to being pregnant.
A 2019 KXAN investigation dug into causes moms die throughout being pregnant or after giving beginning. It additionally discovered the precise variety of girls dying isn’t clear due to data assortment errors.
Read extra maternal data protection from KXAN:
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