What's happening
This bill requires maternal health care providers to administer and review depression screening questionnaires for pregnant and postpartum women during prenatal, postnatal, and well-child visits.
Why it matters
Expands the definition of screening tools. By specifically naming validated questionnaires like the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and others, the law ensures standardized, evidence-based tools are used, potentially improving the accuracy and consistency of depression detection across care settings.
Integrates mental health into routine maternal and pediatric care. Requiring screenings not just during pregnancy and after birth but also at well-child visits acknowledges the ongoing risk of maternal depression and its impact on early childhood development, helping to identify issues that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Emphasizes professional judgment and repeat assessments. Providers are mandated to repeat screenings whenever there is a reasonable suspicion of depression, making the approach responsive to changing circumstances rather than a one-time requirement, which could lead to earlier intervention and better outcomes.
Protects patient privacy with conditional information sharing. The bill requires mothers’ consent before sharing screening results with their primary healthcare provider, except in cases of imminent risk, balancing the need for coordinated care with respect for patient autonomy and confidentiality.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Require Maternal Depression Screenings
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to health
- Referred to health
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
3016
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 28, 2019
Introduced by M. of A. SOLAGES, BICHOTTE -- read once and referred to the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to maternal depression screenings
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 2500-k of the public health law is amended by adding a new paragraph (c) to read as follows:
(c) "Questionnaire" means an assessment tool administered by a licensed health care professional, to detect maternal depression such as the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Patient Health Questionnaire, or other validated assessment methods as approved by the commissioner.
§ 2. Subdivisions 3 and 4 of section 2500-k of the public health law, subdivision 4 as renumbered by chapter 463 of the laws of 2017, are renumbered subdivisions 4 and 5 and a new subdivision 3 is added to read as follows:
3. Maternal depression screenings. (a) Maternal health care providers providing prenatal care at a prenatal visit shall invite each pregnant patient to complete a questionnaire and shall review the completed questionnaire in accordance with the formal opinions and recommendations of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Assessment for maternal depression must be repeated when, in the professional judgment of the maternal health care provider, a reasonable possibility exists that the pregnant patient suffers from maternal depression.
(b) Maternal health care providers providing postnatal care to women shall invite each patient to complete a questionnaire and shall review the completed questionnaire in accordance with the formal opinions of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Assessment for maternal depression must be repeated when, in the professional judgment
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05055-01-9
A. 3016 2
of the maternal health care provider, a reasonable possibility exists that the pregnant patient suffers from maternal depression.
(c) Maternal health care providers providing pediatric care to an infant shall invite the infant's mother to complete a questionnaire at any well-child check-up at which the mother is present prior to the infant's first birthday, and shall review the completed questionnaire in accordance with the formal opinions and recommendations of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, in order to ensure that the health and well-being of the infant is not compromised by an undiagnosed condition of maternal depression in the mother. Assessment for maternal depression must be repeated when, in the professional judgment of the maternal health care provider, a reasonable possibility exists that the pregnant patient suffers from maternal depression.
(d) Consent from the mother must be obtained before a maternal health care provider may share results from an assessment with the mother's primary licensed health care professional, unless the mother is determined to present a danger to herself or others.
§ 3. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed by the commissioner of health on or before such effective date.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.