00                             HOUSE BILL NO. 90                                                                          
01 "An Act establishing a temporary program in the Department of Health and Social                                         
02 Services for testing newborns for baseline vitamin D levels."                                                           
03 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                                
04    * Section 1. The uncodified law of the State of Alaska is amended by adding a new section                          
05 to read:                                                                                                                
06       NEWBORN TESTING PROGRAM FOR VITAMIN D; LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS.                                                      
07 (a) The legislature finds that multiple studies demonstrate a link between vitamin D                                    
08 insufficiency in newborns and higher incidences of mental and physical health problems that                             
09 lead to higher costs of future medical, educational, and support services.                                              
10       (b)  Beginning on or before January 1, 2014, the Department of Health and Social                                  
11 Services shall establish a 12-month statewide program for testing the vitamin D levels of                               
12 newborns at birth or as soon after birth as possible for the purpose of acquiring baseline                              
13 vitamin D levels of all newborns in the state during the testing period. The testing shall be                           
14 conducted, at no cost to a parent or guardian of the newborn, by or under the supervision of a                          

01 health care professional licensed in the state who attends the delivery.                                                
02       (c)  The program established under this section must include a procedure for                                      
03            (1)  combining, to the extent feasible, the vitamin D testing with other newborn                             
04 or cord blood testing;                                                                                                  
05            (2)  ensuring testing complies with federal and state privacy laws;                                          
06            (3)  reporting test results to the department and to the parent or guardian of the                           
07 newborn; and                                                                                                            
08            (4)  permitting a mother of a newborn to refuse testing if seriologic testing is                             
09 contrary to the tenets or practice of the religious creed of the mother.                                                
10       (d)  The department shall contract with a laboratory that is affiliated with an accredited                        
11 university in the United States and that is conducting national clinical research on the subject                        
12 of newborn and prenatal vitamin D levels to provide laboratory and analytic services for the                            
13 samples collected under this section.                                                                                   
14       (e)  In this section, "health care professional" means a physician, physician assistant,                          
15 midwife, or nurse.