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Committee moves to rename and update New Hampshire maternal mortality review process
Summary
The Senate Executive Departments and Administration Committee heard testimony and advanced legislation to rename and revise the maternal mortality review statute, expand committee membership, and secure data access for deidentified case reviews.
Representative Mary Hacken Phillips introduced Senate Bill 182 on behalf of Senator Sue Prentiss, describing the bill as a Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) request to update the statute governing New Hampshire’s multidisciplinary maternal mortality review process.
SB 182 would rename the existing “maternal mortality review panel” as the Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC); revise the definition of a pregnancy-associated death to include any death of a woman while pregnant or within one year of the end of pregnancy irrespective of duration or site of pregnancy; specify institutional facilitation by DHHS jointly with the New Hampshire Perinatal Quality Collaborative affiliated with Dartmouth Health; add membership from the Division for Child, Youth and Families and the Department of Corrections; authorize mileage reimbursement for committee members; and secure access for MMRC reviewers and abstractors to certain protected, deidentified data.
Abby Rogers, legislative liaison for the Division of Public Health Services, told the committee the department supports SB 182. Rogers said the statute needed updating to “clarify statute and improve functionality and critical work of the committee” and to allow later administrative-rule updates.
Erica Tenney, maternal and child health section administrator, explained how the MMRC reviews only deidentified case narratives with names, addresses and specific hospital identifiers redacted. Tenney said the committee’s recommendations are used to inform clinical quality-improvement measures, provider education and policy interventions; she cited existing work on substance use disorder, perinatal mental health, and cardiac causes of maternal death as examples of areas where the MMRC’s reviews have guided action.
Senators asked about the committee’s charge and whether adding representatives from DCYF and the Department of Corrections would expand the panel’s scope to intervene in living cases. Tenney and Rogers emphasized the MMRC’s role is case review and recommendation based on redacted data, not direct intervention: “The goal would not of this committee be intervention in any way. It’s basically a committee that reviews the case review of a maternal death, makes recommendations, and ... looks at the information ... to prevent future deaths,” Tenney said.
The committee moved the bill out of executive session by consent during the hearing. The committee later reconsidered and again moved the bill out with a motion to pass; the committee record indicates the measure advanced from the committee for further action.
The bill would amend the statutory sections the sponsors referenced (spoken in testimony as “RSA 132:29 through RSA 132:31” and related citations) and enable DHHS to continue case review work while updating administrative rules and data-access arrangements.
Ending: If enacted, SB 182 would change the name and statutory structure of New Hampshire’s maternal mortality review entity, expand membership and formalize data access and administrative facilitation. The department said the changes are intended to clarify statutory language and improve the committee’s ability to make prevention-focused recommendations.
