Committee Advances Bipartisan Hassan-led Bill to Help Rural Hospitals Provide Urgent Maternal Care

WASHINGTON – The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted today to advance the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act , bipartisan legislation led by Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) to support rural health care facilities in providing urgent obstetric care. "As labor and delivery units close in rural areas in New Hampshire and across the country, it is critical that every hospital is prepared to treat pregnant and postpartum women who are facing life-threatening emergencies," said Senator Hassan. "This bipartisan bill will help rural hospitals provide emergency obstetric care by expanding access to training and connecting providers in rural facilities to specialists. I'm pleased to see it advance with strong bipartisan support, and I'll keep working to ensure that families in rural New Hampshire can access the care that they need close to home.” Eleven maternity wards have closed in New Hampshire over the last two and a half decades, and the median drive to a labor and delivery unit has doubled to about 40 minutes in recent years, increasing the risks that mothers and babies face during emergencies. Senator Hassan's Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act would help rural hospitals respond to obstetric emergencies by creating labor and delivery training programs for non-specialists and providing small rural hospitals with funding to implement that training, obtain technical assistance with their obstetric readiness plans, and more easily consult with maternal specialists using telehealth during an obstetric emergency. The Committee also voted to advance the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, which would require doctors and hospitals to publish the costs of services and provide the transparency that can help lower prices. Senator Hassan has helped introduce the bill twice. At Senator Hassan’s request, the bill would require providers to disclose any facility fees before a patient receives a service, which will help patients avoid facilities that charge unfair fees. The Hassan-cosponsored Expedited Access to Biosimilars Act, which would streamline the approval process for biosimilars by eliminating costly and redundant clinical study requirements also advanced out of committee. Senator Hassan also supported Senator Shaheen’s INSULIN Act, which advanced from the Committee today, which caps the cost of insulin at $35 per month for Americans on private and employer insurance and creates a pilot program to provide insulin at the same cost to Americans without insurance. Senator Hassan has led efforts to ensure that new and expecting mothers have access to high-quality health care. She introduced the Keep Obstetrics Local Act (KOLA) , to help keep labor and delivery units in rural and underserved communities stay open, and the bipartisan Healthy Moms and Babies Act to strengthen health care for women before, after, and during childbirth. Thanks to Senator Hassan’s bipartisan legislation to improve mental health for new mothers, the Department of Health and Human Services launched the Task Force on Maternal Mental Health in 2023.