Amends, repeals, and adds to existing law to establish procedures regarding required tests and blood specimen collection for infants and newborns.
Senate Bill 1014 revises Idaho’s laws governing newborn screening and related preventive care. It repeals several older provisions in Chapter 9, Title 39, and replaces them with a reorganized framework under the heading “Prevention of Blindness and Other Preventable Diseases in Infants and Newborns.” The bill requires reporting of eye inflammation and other reportable diseases associated with birth, and it directs physicians and midwives to apply ocular antibiotic prophylaxis to newborns to prevent gonococcal ophthalmia neonatorum, following CDC and U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidance.
The bill also expands and clarifies newborn screening requirements. It specifies which conditions must be tested for as standard medical practice in Idaho, including biotinidase deficiency, congenital hypothyroidism, critical congenital heart disease, galactosemia, maple syrup urine disease, and phenylketonuria. It creates detailed procedures for dried blood specimen collection, including timing for healthy newborns, NICU infants, low-birth-weight infants, transfers between hospitals, and out-of-hospital births, along with recordkeeping, mailing, reporting, and follow-up obligations for hospitals, laboratories, and birth attendants. The bill also preserves a religious exemption and declares certain existing administrative rules on newborn screening null and void as of July 1, 2025.
S1014 would substantially update Idaho Code provisions in Title 39 by repealing outdated sections and replacing them with new statutory language that standardizes newborn screening and specimen collection practices statewide. It shifts several operational details from prior law and administrative rules into statute, including reporting duties, screening timelines, laboratory handling requirements, and birth-certificate documentation. It also affects hospitals, health care facilities, physicians, midwives, laboratories, local health districts, and the Department of Health and Welfare, while expressly invalidating IDAPA 16.02.12 newborn screening rules beginning July 1, 2025.
The bill appears to have broad support in both chambers based on the vote totals, passing the Senate 35-0 and the House 63-1. That voting pattern suggests general agreement with the goal of updating and clarifying newborn screening requirements and related public health procedures. The available record does not include committee debate, but the strong floor votes indicate the measure was viewed favorably overall.
The main potential points of contention are the bill’s directive that certain newborn screening rules become void, which may shift authority from administrative rulemaking to statute, and the detailed mandates imposed on providers and institutions for screening, reporting, and specimen collection. Another possible area of concern is the continued religious exemption, which preserves an opt-out for children whose parents or guardians object on recognized religious grounds. The near-unanimous votes suggest these issues did not generate significant opposition in the recorded floor action, though the single House dissent indicates at least one legislator objected.