IIB 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1246 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 31, 2009 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, 

Labor, and Pensions 

AN ACT 

To amend the Public Health Service Act regarding early 

detection, diagnosis, and treatment of hearing loss. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Early Hearing Detec3 tion and Intervention Act of 2009’’. 

4 SEC. 2. EARLY DETECTION, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT 

5 OF HEARING LOSS. 

6 Section 399M of the Public Health Service Act (42 

7 U.S.C. 280g–1) is amended— 

8 (1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘IN9 FANTS’’ and inserting ‘‘NEWBORNS AND IN10 FANTS’’; 

11 (2) in subsection (a)— 

12 (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 

13 by striking ‘‘screening, evaluation and interven14 tion programs and systems’’ and inserting 

15 ‘‘screening, evaluation, diagnosis, and interven16 tion programs and systems, and to assist in the 

17 recruitment, retention, education, and training 

18 of qualified personnel and health care pro19 viders,’’; 

20 (B) by amending paragraph (1) to read as 

21 follows: 

22 ‘‘(1) To develop and monitor the efficacy of 

23 statewide programs and systems for hearing screen24 ing of newborns and infants; prompt evaluation and 

25 diagnosis of children referred from screening pro26 grams; and appropriate educational, audiological, 


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1 and medical interventions for children identified with 

2 hearing loss. Early intervention includes referral to 

3 and delivery of information and services by schools 

4 and agencies, including community, consumer, and 

5 parent-based agencies and organizations and other 

6 programs mandated by part C of the Individuals 

7 with Disabilities Education Act, which offer pro8 grams specifically designed to meet the unique lan9 guage and communication needs of deaf and hard of 

10 hearing newborns, infants, toddlers, and children. 

11 Programs and systems under this paragraph shall 

12 establish and foster family-to-family support mecha13 nisms that are critical in the first months after a 

14 child is identified with hearing loss.’’; and 

15 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

16 ‘‘(3) To develop efficient models to ensure that 

17 newborns and infants who are identified with a hear18 ing loss through screening receive follow-up by a 

19 qualified health care provider. These models shall be 

20 evaluated for their effectiveness, and State agencies 

21 shall be encouraged to adopt models that effectively 

22 increase the rate of occurrence of such follow-up. 

23 ‘‘(4) To ensure an adequate supply of qualified 

24 personnel to meet the screening, evaluation, diag25 nosis, and early intervention needs of children.’’; 


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1 (3) in subsection (b)— 

2 (A) in paragraph (1)(A), by striking 

3 ‘‘hearing loss screening, evaluation, and inter4 vention programs’’ and inserting ‘‘hearing loss 

5 screening, evaluation, diagnosis, and interven6 tion programs’’; and 

7 (B) in paragraph (2)— 

8 (i) by striking ‘‘for purposes of this 

9 section, continue’’ and insert the following: 

10 ‘‘for purposes of this section— 

11 ‘‘(A) continue’’; 

12 (ii) by striking the period at the end 

13 and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

14 (iii) by adding at the end the fol15 lowing: 

16 ‘‘(B) establish a postdoctoral fellowship 

17 program to foster research and development in 

18 the area of early hearing detection and inter19 vention.’’; 

20 (4) in paragraphs (2) and (3) of subsection (c), 

21 by striking the term ‘‘hearing screening, evaluation 

22 and intervention programs’’ each place such term 

23 appears and inserting ‘‘hearing screening, evalua24 tion, diagnosis, and intervention programs’’; 

25 (5) in subsection (e)— 


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1 (A) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘ensur2 ing that families of the child’’ and all that fol3 lows and inserting ‘‘ensuring that families of 

4 the child are provided comprehensive, con5 sumer-oriented information about the full range 

6 of family support, training, information serv7 ices, and language and communication options 

8 and are given the opportunity to consider and 

9 obtain the full range of such appropriate serv10 ices, educational and program placements, and 

11 other options for their child from highly quali12 fied providers.’’; and 

13 (B) in paragraph (6), by striking ‘‘, after 

14 rescreening,’’; and 

15 (6) in subsection (f)— 

16 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘fiscal 

17 year 2002’’ and inserting ‘‘fiscal years 2010 

18 through 2015’’; 

19 (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘fiscal 

20 year 2002’’ and inserting ‘‘fiscal years 2010 

21 through 2015’’; and 


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1 (C) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘fiscal 

2 year 2002’’ and inserting ‘‘fiscal years 2010 

3 through 2015’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives March 30, 

2009. 

Attest: LORRAINE C. MILLER, 

Clerk. 


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