Prevention activities

• We advocate for prevention and wellness initiatives.
• Preventing prematurity is our current national campaign.
• Areas of focus also include newborn screening and immunizations.

History
On March 30, 2013, the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act was introduced in the 113th Congress and referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act reauthorizes critical federal activities that assist states in improving and expanding their newborn screening programs, supporting parent and provider newborn screening education, and ensuring laboratory quality and surveillance.

Summary of key provisions

• Reauthorizes the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grants to states to expand and improve their screening programs, educate parents and health care providers, and improve follow-up care for infants with a condition detected through newborn screening.

• Reauthorizes the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children, which provides states with a Recommended Uniform Screening Panel to help ensure every infant is screened for conditions which have a known treatment.

• Reauthorizes HRSA’s Clearinghouse for Newborn Screening Information and the National Newborn Screening and Genetic Resource Center.

• Reauthorizes the Centers  for Diseased Control and Prevention (CDC) Newborn Screening Quality Assurance Program (NSQAP), the only comprehensive program in the world devoted to ensuring the accuracy of newborn tests.

• Authorizes a CDC grant program to provide technical assistance to state newborn screening programs to  track outcomes of infants identified through newborn screening.

• Reauthorizes the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Hunter Kelly Newborn Screening program, which funds research aimed at identifying new treatments for conditions that can be detected through newborn screening and developing new screening technologies.