Health panel reviews bill to expand mandatory newborn screening; Department of Health says it does not endorse measure

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The House Commission of Health on May 20, 2025 heard testimony on House Bill 251, a proposal to expand the list of conditions screened for at birth under Law 84 (1987). The Department of Health told the commission it does not endorse the bill and urged that additions to the newborn screening panel be made through the government’s Hereditary Diseases Council and scientific review rather than by statute.

The Department of Health’s memorial and testimony, read during the hearing, argued the council established by Law 84 and existing regulation provides the appropriate process for evaluating and adding conditions to Puerto Rico’s screening panel. “El departamento de salud no endosa el proyecto de de la cámara 2 51,” the department’s policy advisor said during the reading of the memorial. The department asked the commission for time to review amendments the bill’s author proposes and for additional data on costs and clinical feasibility.

Why it matters: The bill would make additional genetic and metabolic conditions mandatory for neonatal screening. Some candidate conditions cited at the hearing — notably certain leukodystrophies — require treatment within a narrow window after birth to be effective,…