Bill > HR7830

This bill, known as the Women Expansion of Learning and Labor Safety Act or the WELLS Act, mandates that hospitals participating in Medicare, including critical access hospitals and rural emergency hospitals, must develop specific discharge plans for pregnant individuals who are identified as pregnant, experiencing signs of labor, and are expected to be discharged before delivery, starting January 1, 2027. These discharge plans must include a clinical justification for the discharge, an assessment of travel distance and transportation reliability to the individual's residence, identification of a backup hospital for labor and delivery services, and confirmation that the plan was reviewed by a medical professional and understood by the individual or their representative in their primary language. The bill also amends grant programs for rural maternal and obstetric care training to include racial bias training and establish minimum performance milestones related to staff training, and it initiates a multi-center research initiative to evaluate different training models for healthcare professionals in maternal health, with the results to be compiled into a publicly accessible maternal health dashboard.