Bills propose studying infant, maternal deaths

Committees assigned to investigate Arkansas’ high rates of infant and maternal mortality would be created under bills recommended for approval by a legislative panel on Thursday.

The state Department of Health would be directed to create the Maternal Mortality Review Committee under House Bill 1440 and the Maternal and Perinatal Outcomes Quality Review Committee under House Bill 1441.

Both panels would be made up of members appointed by the department, which would be allowed to hire an organization to help collect information and analyze data.

The Maternal Mortality Review Committee would investigate the deaths of women occurring during a pregnancy or up to a year afterward and make recommendations on how to prevent such deaths.

The Maternal and Perinatal Outcomes Quality Review Committee would review data on births and develop recommendations for improving outcomes.

Both committees would file annual reports with the Legislative Council and House and Senate committees on Public Health, Welfare and Labor. Their proceedings and records would be exempt from the state Freedom of Information Act.

Health Department spokesman Meg Mirivel said the department would spend about $160,000 a year on the two committees, including salaries for two employees to help with compiling information and issuing reports.

The money would initially come from a federal block grant for maternal and child health services. The department also would apply for additional grant money after the committees are set up, she said.

Rep. Deborah Ferguson, D-West Memphis, the sponsor of HB1440, and Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville, sponsor of HB1441, sat together as each presented her bill Thursday to the House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor.

Ferguson described the measures as “companion bills.”

According to an analysis of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by the United Health Foundation, Arkansas had a rate of 34.8 maternal deaths per 100,000 births from 2011-15, the fifth-highest rate among the 48 states for which data were available.