View source for Resolution to End State-Enabled Newborn Testing Monopolies Exposed

The '''[[:media:5B8-Resolution_to_End_State-Enabled_Newborn_Testing_Monopolies_Exposed.pdf|Resolution to End State-Enabled Newborn Testing Monopolies]]''' was adopted by ALEC's [https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Health_and_Human_Services_Task_Force Health and Human Services Task Force] and approved by the ALEC Board of Directors in 2005. {{AEX2011}}

==ALEC Resolution Text==

Summary

This resolution urges state legislators to rescind the laws and regulatory authority that
have made state agencies the exclusive providers of clinical laboratory services to detect
treatable disorders in newborns. This resolution proposes that newborns, their families,
and society would be better served if qualified private organizations were permitted to
offer these laboratory services within the marketplace.


Model Resolution

WHEREAS, improving the health of children is a national goal, and

WHEREAS, newborn screening identifies treatable inherited and other disorders in
newborn babies by testing a blood sample shortly after birth, and

WHEREAS, newborn screening and early clinical intervention can prevent or detect
irreversible and serious health problems that could lead to mental retardation or death in
children, and

WHEREAS, the screening of all babies for treatable newborn disorders has been an
accepted medical practice in the United States for more than 30 years, and

WHEREAS, advances in technology and clinical interventions by private organizations
have made it practical to screen and successfully treat an expanding number of
debilitating disorders in newborns, and

WHEREAS, state officials have used their regulatory authority and access to state
legislatures to establish regulations and laws that exclude private laboratories from
performing new born screening, and

WHEREAS, agencies in many states have established fees for newborn screening
services while requiring private hospitals and physicians to obtain newborn screening
services only from state agencies, and

WHEREAS, these monopolistic practices exist primarily to prevent competition from
private organizations and assure cash flow to state agencies, and

WHEREAS, these monopolistic practices have eliminated the normal market forces that
encourage technological innovation, competition, and cost control, and

WHEREAS, these monopolistic practice provides no documented medical or public
health benefit, and

WHEREAS, this is a wide disparity in newborn screening services between states, and

WHEREAS, the newest technologies in newborn screening are not available to newborns
through most state agencies that provide newborn screening services, and

WHEREAS, newborns are not receiving the best services and information on screening
because private laboratories are excluded from the marketplace.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that {insert state and legislative body; i.e.
General Assembly} strongly urges the {insert appropriate department} and Governor to
end the state monopoly on newborn screening services by revising or rescinding the
regulations or laws that exclude qualified private laboratories from providing newborn
screening services to hospitals and physicians, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that hospitals and physicians should be permitted to
choose among qualified providers of newborn screening services as they currently do for
all other clinical laboratory services.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the {insert appropriate department} should
continue to gather results of newborn screening to ensure appropriate follow up, efficacy,
and quality of private screening.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that copies of this resolution will be distributed to
{insert the appropriate department} and Governor.


Adopted by the Health and Human Services Task Force and approved by the ALEC Board
of Directors in 2005