Newborn Metabolic, Endocrine, Hemoglobin, and other Disorders Screening Program and Newborn Hearing Impairment Screening Program

Regulation Authority:

R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 23-13-13 and 23-13-14
R.I. Gen. Laws § 23-13-9

Purpose and Reason:

RIDOH is proposing the following amendments to Newborn Metabolic, Endocrine, and Hemoglobin, and Other Disorders Screening Program and Newborn Hearing Impairment Screening Program (216-RICR-20-05-1):

• Adding 'Mucopolysaccharidosis Type II (MPS-II)' and 'Guanidinoacetate-Methyltransferase (GAMT) Deficiency' to the required testing types. These tests were added to the federal Recommended Uniform Screening Panel and are required to be added to these regulations under state statute;
• Renaming the regulation and the testing types within the regulation to be consistent with federal regulations;
• Changing “hearing loss” to “hearing impairment” to be consistent with Rhode Island statute;
• Removing “and/or midwife” and adding “If a physician is not present at the birth of a newborn, a midwife may cause said child to be subject to screening tests for the conditions listed below;” and,
• Removing “These fees shall be adjusted annually to cover the cost of inflation using the Medicare Economic Index (MEI),” to address the fact that this practice is no longer used by RIDOH and the process for calculating fees was added to 216-RICR-10-05-2.