Committee approves newborn-screening rule changes; department says processes won’t change while language moves to statute

The Idaho House Health and Welfare Committee on the day's agenda adopted docket 16-0212-2401, a pending rule chapter on newborn screening that department staff said “modernizes and updates the language” and removes duplication with statute.

Catherine Humphrey, maternal and child health section manager, told the committee the edits were intended to "remove duplication of language and really kind of consolidate" the chapter and said the changes "don't change any of the process of how the screening is conducted or how it's sent to the lab for screening." Jared Larson, the department's legislative and regulatory affairs chief, said the department is preparing a policy bill to move the remaining substantive provisions into statute.