Bill > S4482

This bill, known as the Women Expansion of Learning and Labor Safety Act or WELLS Act, mandates that hospitals participating in Medicare must develop specific discharge plans for pregnant individuals who are admitted with signs of labor but are expected to be discharged before delivery. These discharge plans, which must be included in the patient's medical record and discussed with the patient prior to discharge, need to include a clinical justification for the discharge, an assessment of travel distance and transportation reliability to the patient's home, identification of a secondary hospital for labor and delivery services, and confirmation that the plan was reviewed by qualified personnel and understood by the patient. The bill also amends the Public Health Service Act to establish minimum performance milestones for rural maternal and obstetric care training grants, requiring a certain percentage of staff to be trained, and mandates more comprehensive annual reports on these grants. Finally, it establishes a multi-center initiative to evaluate different training models for healthcare professionals in maternal health and to create a public dashboard of maternal health outcome metrics.