2327 Addition of diseases to the Newborn Screening and Follow-Up Program

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

Addition of Diseases to the Newborn Screening and Follow-Up Program

[42 Pa.B. 7348]
[Saturday, December 1, 2012]

 Under section 3(d) of the Newborn Child Testing Act (act) (35 P. S. § 623(d)), the Department of Health (Department), with the approval of the Newborn Screening and Follow-up Technical Advisory Committee (Committee), has the authority to establish by periodic publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, changes to the list in section 3(a)(1) of the act of diseases for which screening tests of newborn children shall be conducted and changes to the list in section 3(a)(2) of the act of diseases for which follow-up services (relating to case management, referrals, confirmatory testing and assessment) of newborn children with abnormal, inconsistent or unacceptable screening test results are required.

 The Department hereby gives notice, effective March 1, 2013, that the following disease shall be added to the list of diseases for which follow-up services (relating to case management, referrals, confirmatory testing and assessments in section 3(a)(2) of the act of newborn children are required:

Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).

 Under section 3(e) of the act, the Department also may establish, by periodic publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, the method for reporting newborn screening test results to the Department. The Department hereby gives notice, effective March 1, 2013, that test results and diagnoses based upon screening tests for CHD shall be reported to the Department by means of reporting forms that may be accessed, as of January 2, 2013, on the Department's web site at www.health.state.pa.us/newbornscreening.

 This notice also will serve to advise that the Department has approval from the Committee to add Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disease to the list of diseases in section 3(a)(2) of the act for which follow-up services are required. Formal notice will be published upon implementation of a laboratory information management system, which the Department anticipates will occur in 2013.

 Persons with a disability who require an alternative format of this notice (for example, large print, audiotape, Braille) should contact the Department of Health, Bureau of Family Health, Division of Newborn Screening Program, 625 Forster Street, H&W Building, 7th Floor East, Harrisburg, PA 17120, [phone], for speech and/or hearing impaired persons at V/TT [phone], or the Pennsylvania AT&T Relay Service at [phone] (TT).

MICHAEL WOLF, 
Acting Secretary

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 12-2327. Filed for public inspection November 30, 2012, 9:00 a.m.]