HB4606 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB104 17639 KTG 31070 b

104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2025 and 2026
HB4606

Introduced 2/3/2026, by Rep. Laura Faver Dias - Lilian Jiménez

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

20 ILCS 1305/10-85 new

Amends the Department of Human Services Act. Requires the Department of Human Services to design, implement, and maintain a statewide program to provide voluntary short-term universal newborn home visiting services to all Illinois families with newborn infants for the purpose of promoting the physical, mental, and social well-being of newborn infants and their parents or caregivers. Requires the Department to: (i) consider recommendations from the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems grant report when adopting rules to implement the universal newborn home visiting program; and (ii) consult, coordinate, and collaborate with specified stakeholders when designing the universal newborn home visiting program. Contains provisions concerning grant awards for the establishment or expansion of local universal newborn home visiting programs; criteria for the selection of eligible service models; program requirements; program data collection and reporting; and other matters. Effective July 1, 2027.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning State government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Department of Human Services Act is amended by adding Section 10-85 as follows:

(20 ILCS 1305/10-85 new)

Sec. 10-85. Short-term Universal Newborn Home Visiting Services.

(a) The General Assembly finds all of the following:

(1) The weeks following birth are a critical period for the person who has given birth, the newborn infant, and the entire family, setting the stage for long-term health and well-being.

(2) Families may struggle to navigate and access early childhood, health and mental health, and other support service networks in the early postpartum period, and targeted services and supports may fail to identify families who do not present with risk factors.

(3) Research also indicates that postpartum education and care leads to lower rates of morbidity and mortality in persons who have given birth, as many of the risk factors for post-delivery complications, such as hemorrhaging or a pulmonary embolism, may not be identifiable before a person who has given birth is discharged following the birth. Research also indicates that parenting education on health risks for newborns, including substance use, lactation, safe sleep, and other topics, lead to lower infant mortality and morbidity.

(4) Illinois communities have invested in and are already implementing short-term universal newborn home visiting services, including Stephenson, Peoria, Winnebago, and Macon counties, and the city of Chicago, and have demonstrated positive outcomes for the physical, mental, and social well-being of newborns and the parents or caregivers of newborns.

(5) The 2018 Illinois Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report from the Department of Public Health recommended that the State expand efforts to provide short-term universal home visiting to all mothers within 3 weeks of giving birth.

(6) In October 2021, the Department of Human Services received an Early Childhood Comprehensive Services grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration to investigate ways to enhance the prenatal-to-age 3 statewide maternal and early childhood system of care by establishing a Universal Newborn Support System that better connects families to programs and services.

(7) Short-term universal newborn home visiting services are a covered Medicaid benefit under the approved State Plan Amendment.

(b) The purpose of this Section is to establish within the Department of Human Services a program to provide short-term universal newborn home visiting services to all families with newborn infants residing in this State.

(c) The Department shall design, implement, and maintain a statewide program to provide voluntary short-term universal newborn home visiting services to all families with newborn infants residing in this State for the purpose of promoting the physical, mental, and social well-being of newborn infants and their parents or caregivers. The Department shall consider recommendations from the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems grant report when adopting rules to implement the statewide universal newborn home visiting program.

(d) Once established, the Department shall administer and manage the statewide universal newborn home visiting program, which shall include managing infrastructure for a coordinated statewide system, including data collection, evaluation, continuous quality improvement, communications, clinical supervision, and other infrastructure functions.

(e) Subject to appropriation, the Department shall award grants to support the establishment or expansion of local universal newborn home visiting programs in accordance with this Section and any other rules that may be adopted by the Department. Successful grantees shall comply with policies and procedures on program, data, and expense reporting as developed by the Department.

(f) In designing the universal newborn home visiting services, the Department shall consult, coordinate, and collaborate, as necessary, with relevant stakeholders including early childhood home visiting programs, community-based organizations and social service providers, maternal and child health advisories and stakeholders, hospitals, birth centers, local public health authorities, insurance carriers, and other State agencies.

(g) Funds received under this Section shall supplement, not supplant, other existing or new federal, State, or local sources of funding for these services. Any new federal funding received shall supplement and not supplant funding for the statewide universal newborn home visiting program.

(h) The Department shall establish criteria for the selection of service models eligible under the universal newborn home visiting program. The universal newborn home visiting services must:

(1) Be delivered in accordance with a program model that has been validated by evidence and found to be effective in promoting the physical, mental, and social well-being of newborn infants and the parents or caregivers of newborn infants, and approved by the Department. The program model must have been found to be effective in at least one well-designed randomized, controlled trial, or in at least 2 well-designed quasi-experimental (matched comparison group) studies, or have been designated as an "evidence-based" home visiting program by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

(2) Include an evidence-based assessment of the physical, social, and emotional factors affecting the family and newborn infant, including, but not limited to, a health and wellness check of the newborn infant and an assessment of the physical and mental health of a person who has given birth, lactation support as needed, and screening for social determinants or drivers of health through query and validated screeners with clinical relevance in diagnosing for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.

(3) Provide information and facilitate referrals to address the specific needs of newborn infants and the families of newborn infants, including linking a person who has given birth and the person's infant to community resources, early childhood services, family support services, community-based organizations, or social service agency programs available to persons who have given birth and their newborn infants, and medically necessary follow-up health care.

(4) Include at least one visit within the first 3 weeks after discharge of the newborn infant from the birth hospital with up to 2 follow-up visits as determined by clinical judgment.

(5) Be offered to each family with a newborn infant that resides in the community where the program is implemented. For purposes of this Section, the family of a newborn infant includes biological parents, foster and adoptive parents, kinship caregivers, and parents who have recently experienced a stillbirth.

(6) Be offered at no cost to a family and carry no negative consequences for a family that declines to receive services or participate in the program.

(i) Beginning no later than January 1, 2028, the Department shall collect and analyze data generated by the universal newborn home visiting program to assess its effectiveness in meeting the aims described in subsection (c). The Department shall also work with other State agencies to develop protocols for sharing data, including the timely sharing of data with the primary care providers of families with newborns who are receiving universal newborn home visiting services.

(j) Beginning no later than October 1, 2029, and annually thereafter, the Department shall report to the General Assembly on the status of the provision of universal newborn home visiting services in the State.

(k) The Department may adopt any rules necessary to implement this Section.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect July 1, 2027.