NV State Public Health Lab Newborn Screening Test Additions 2022 - The Nevada State Public Health Laboratory (NSPHL) has been performing newborn screening for Nevada since July 1, 2014. Nevada is a 2-Screen state resulting in approximately 66,000 newborn screening samples submitted annually. On January 1, 2020, a state law was enacted requiring Nevada's newborn screening panel to comply with the Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP) as defined by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in a timely manner (pertinent excerpt below):
NRS 442.008 Examination of infants: Regulations; performance of tests by State Public Health Laboratory; duties of physician, midwife, nurse, obstetric center or hospital; exemption. The examinations and tests required pursuant to subsection 1 must include tests and examinations for each disorder recommended to be screened by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the United States Department of Health and Human Services by not later than 4 years after the recommendation is published
The NSPHL is applying for funding through the Enhancing Disease Detection in Newborns: Building Capacity in Public Health Laboratories funding announcement. The NSPHL seeks to implement SMA and XALD (Option A) and improve the turn-around-time (TAT) for IRT confirmations (Option B), thus, enhancing Nevada's newborn screening program and compliance with Nevada Law NRS 442.008.
NSPHL New Test Implementation History/Success
The Nevada Newborn Screening Program implemented (from scratch) a comprehensive newborn screening system in Nevada on July 1, 2014, without any difficulties. It was considered an unprecedented and extraordinary undertaking to implement testing for 53 newborn screening disorders, including complete short-term and long-term follow-up programs, all at once. According to veteran newborn screening experts at the national level, this magnitude of new test implementation had never been done before. In 2018, the NSPHL added SCID to the newborn screening panel without issue. As a result, the Program is confident that the addition of SMA and X-ALD to the Nevada newborn screening panel and the confirmatory testing for IRT will enhance the programmatic capabilities and decrease the TAT of results to benefit babies in Nevada. Furthermore, the addition of SMA and X-ALD will result in Nevada babies being afforded the ultimate gift of life through the early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of potentially fatal or progressive debilitating disease.
Nevada Newborn Screening Fee Increase
The NSPHL works closely with the Nevada HHS Division of Public and Behavioral Health. This agency coordinates modifications to both the Nevada Administrative Code (regulatory) and Nevada Revised Statutes (law) on behalf of the NSPHL. Work has already begun to coordinate a newborn screening fee increase through this agency. This process will be finalized and implemented in time for new fees to support the testing being added to the newborn screening panel and other testing yet to be undertaken to comply with the RUSP.
