Infant Protection and Baby Switching Prevention Act of 2019
This bill establishes additional requirements that certain hospitals must meet in order to participate in Medicare. Specifically, as a condition of Medicare participation, hospitals and critical access hospitals that provide neonatal or infant care must have appropriate security procedures to reduce the likelihood of infant patient abduction and baby switching. Noncompliant hospitals are subject to specified civil penalties.
The bill also establishes criminal penalties for knowingly altering or destroying a newborn's hospital patient records for the purpose of causing the newborn to be misidentified.