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Committee approves bill adding prenatal syphilis screening and delivery testing to Tennessee requirements
Summary
House Bill 111 would add a syphilis screening between 28 and 32 weeks of gestation and testing at delivery, and the committee advanced the measure by voice vote.
The House Health Full Committee advanced House Bill 111, which would add additional prenatal syphilis screening and require testing at delivery.
Sponsor Representative Martin told members that a constituent’s graduate research at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga found a “548 percent increase in reported cases in Tennessee alone” between February 2019 and February 2023 and said untreated syphilis can cause adverse birth outcomes. In sponsor remarks the bill updates testing frequency, aligns Tennessee’s testing schedule with other states and adds testing at delivery; the Department of Health supported the measure and requested additional hepatitis testing language.
Representative Martin said the bill “adds an additional syphilis screening between the 28th and 32nd week of gestation, as well as at the time of delivery,” and noted the department added mandatory hepatitis C testing and discretionary hepatitis B testing.
There was no committee debate recorded beyond sponsor remarks; the clerk recorded 22 ayes and 1 no. The bill advances to concurrence and counter-enrollment.
