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Bill to require statewide newborn nurse home visits amended to create work group and study existing programs
Summary
House Bill 334 was stripped of its original mandate to require a statewide nurse home‑visiting program and instead was amended to create a work group. The group will inventory existing home‑visiting programs, identify gaps and funding and workforce needs, and report findings to the General Assembly by Dec. 31, 2025.
House Bill 334, as introduced, would have required the Maryland Department of Health to establish a voluntary statewide program to provide universal newborn nurse home visiting services and would have required insurers and plans to cover the full cost of the provider. In subcommittee, members adopted amendments that removed the program mandate and instead created a work group to study existing newborn and postpartum home‑visiting programs, identify service gaps compared with evidence‑based nurse‑home‑visiting models, explore funding sources and workforce needs, and report recommendations to the General Assembly by Dec. 31, 2025.
Delegate Bagnell, who led discussion of the item in subcommittee, characterized the revised measure as a collaborative, data‑driven approach: “This is the little bill that could,” she said, thanking other delegates for adding provisions on cultural competency and for the subcommittee’s unanimous support for the amendments. Several members said the change was intended to avoid duplicating existing programs; Delegate Shaliga asked whether the work would duplicate efforts funded through the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act, noting the BRFA includes a proposed transfer of funds from a maternal and child health population fund to the general fund. Committee staff clarified the fiscal note had been removed from the bill and the work group’s mission is to compile data from current programs, identify gaps against an evidence‑based nurse home‑visiting model piloted in Frederick, and recommend funding and scaling options.
A voice vote in subcommittee approved the amended bill. A small number of members recorded that they did not want their names listed on the bill as sponsors in the transcript’s procedural roll‑call for sponsorship.
What the subcommittee decided: the bill advances as an amended directive establishing a work group to study newborn and postpartum home‑visiting services; it does not create a statewide nurse home‑visiting program at this stage.
Quoted from the hearing:
“‘This is the little bill that could,’” Delegate Bagnell said, noting the subcommittee’s efforts to add cultural competency and to rely on data.
Ending: The work group will report back to the General Assembly by Dec. 31, 2025; the subcommittee’s action shifts the measure from an immediate program mandate to a structured study and recommendation process.
