Public Health - Women's Health Care Data - Report
SB965 requires the Maryland Department of Health to collect, compile, and publicly report annual data on the costs of birth, postpartum care, pregnancy care, and abortion in Maryland. The bill defines the categories of data to be gathered, including delivery costs, complications, neonatal care, postpartum mental health treatment, prenatal services, abortion procedures, follow-up care, abortion pill costs, and costs associated with abortion care training programs. It also directs the Department to track Maryland Medical Assistance Program expenditures for chemical and surgical abortions separately.
To carry out this reporting system, the bill requires the Department to create standardized data submission forms or worksheets and to collect information from hospitals, licensed health care providers, and other entities that provide the covered services. The Department must submit a comprehensive report to the General Assembly and post it on its website each year beginning December 1, 2025. The report must include aggregated cost data, regional comparisons, trend analysis, and any recommendations for improving cost efficiency, while excluding personally identifiable information and complying with privacy laws such as HIPAA.
The bill would add a new Part V to Title 20 of the Health-General Article, creating a statutory framework for women’s health care data collection and reporting. It would impose new administrative duties on the Maryland Department of Health and reporting obligations on hospitals, providers, and other covered entities, while also requiring the Department to separately track certain Medicaid-funded abortion expenditures. The measure does not change eligibility for services, but it would expand state-level oversight and transparency around reproductive and maternal health spending.
The available record shows no committee testimony, recorded votes, or formal action, so there is no documented public debate in the provided materials. Based on the bill text, the measure appears designed as a data-gathering and transparency bill rather than a direct regulatory or funding change, which may make it broadly palatable to supporters of evidence-based policymaking. At the same time, because it specifically includes abortion-related costs and abortion pill reversal costs, it could attract interest or concern from both reproductive rights advocates and abortion opponents depending on how the data are used.
The main points of potential contention are the bill’s inclusion of abortion-related cost tracking, the requirement to report Medicaid expenditures for chemical and surgical abortions separately, and the collection of data from providers and facilities that may view the new reporting burden as administrative overhead. Privacy protections are also central, since the bill requires anonymization and de-identification and bars personally identifiable information, but some stakeholders may still question whether sufficiently detailed regional or service-level reporting could risk privacy or create indirect burdens on patients and providers. Another possible point of debate is the inclusion of abortion pill reversal costs and abortion care training program costs, which may be viewed as politically sensitive or outside the core scope of maternal health cost reporting.