Coats' Disease Resources - Assembly Bill 2185

AB 2185, Gallegos. Eye pathology screening: newborns.

Existing law provides for the newborn and infant hearing screening, tracking, and intervention program.

This bill would require the State Department of Health Services, on or before June 30, 2002, to adopt the protocol developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics to optimally detect the presence of treatable causes of blindness in infants by 2 months of age. If a protocol is not developed on or before June 30, 2002, the department, in consultation with representatives of the 11-member Newborn Eye Pathology Task Force created by the bill, would establish a protocol to optimally detect the presence of treatable causes of blindness in infants by 2 months of age on or before January 1, 2003. The bill would also provide that if the American Academy of Pediatrics develops a protocol to optimally detect the presence of treatable causes of blindness by 2 months of age after the adoption of the protocol developed by the department, the department would conform its protocol to the protocol adopted by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The bill would specify that any recommended screening examination would not be conducted on a newborn if a parent or guardian of the newborn objects to the examination on the grounds that the examination conflicts with the religious beliefs or practices of the parent or guardian.