Bill > HF277

This bill removes birth centers from the definition of "institutional health facility" and modifies several related state code sections to reflect this change. Specifically, the bill eliminates references to birth centers in existing definitions and updates the definition of "birth center" to describe it as a facility where births are planned to occur following a normal, uncomplicated, low-risk pregnancy. By removing birth centers from the institutional health facility classification, the bill effectively eliminates the requirement for healthcare providers to obtain a Certificate of Need (CON) when creating, relocating, expanding, or offering new services in birth centers. This means birth centers will have more flexibility in establishing and growing their facilities without going through the previous regulatory approval process. The bill makes conforming changes to multiple sections of Iowa Code, including those related to the health facilities council, shaken baby syndrome prevention, newborn hearing screening, and adverse health care incident reporting, ensuring consistency across different legal definitions and references.

Health and Social Services

https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=91&ba=HF277