WELLS Act

Starting January 1, 2027, hospitals, critical access hospitals, and rural emergency hospitals in Medicare would have to create a written discharge plan for any pregnant patient showing signs of labor who is expected to be sent home before giving birth. The plan must include a medical reason for the discharge, the travel distance and time to the patient's home, confirmation of reliable transportation, a backup hospital for delivery, review by a nurse, social worker, or other qualified staff, and confirmation that the patient understood the information in their primary language. The bill would also require minimum performance milestones for rural maternal and obstetric care training grants, along with yearly public reports on those grants. It would create a federal research initiative to study training models for maternal health care workers and a public online dashboard of maternal health outcome data.

Full text and official record on Congress.gov

Sponsors

• Lisa Blunt Rochester Democrat sponsor
• 0 cosponsors