Infant Protection and Baby Switching Prevention Act 2011 - Essay Example

Healthcare Legislation Project Topic: Infant Protection and Baby Switching Prevention Act INTRODUCTION On 7th Jan Sheila Jackson Lee introduced the Infant Protection and Baby Switching Prevention Act 2011. The bill aim was to protect infants abductions and prevent baby switching in the United States health care buildings. The bill sought to address the rising problem of infant abductions and baby switching from the hospitals with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reporting that 47% of all child abductions took place in hospitals (NCMEC, 2010). The bill sought to amend the Social Security Act of the United States with the requirements that all hospitals in the Medicare program be provided with regulations and mechanisms to facilitate implementation of security measures to reduce the possibility of infant abductions and baby switching in medical institutions of the United States. The security measures would enable efficient and rapid identification of illegal baby and infant movements in the hospital with the goal of and possibility of timely interception if the baby were being abducted. As a deterrent to baby thefts and infant switching the bill stipulated stiff penalties for organizations and individuals found guilty of offenses stipulated by the act under federal law. Child theft and infant switching is a rising problem in the world. In the United States, it happens predominantly in hospitals causing lots of emotional pain and anguish to parents and public mistrust against hospitals. This paper seeks to analyze the validity and viability of the Infant Protection and Baby Switching Prevention Act 2011 and its potential to rectify the problem in the United States hospital systems. BACKGROUND Statistics from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children indicate that 271 infants have been abducted by non family members from 1983 to date with 12 still missing ((NCMEC, 2010). 47% of all abductions happened within health care facilities with violence against the mothers been used in some instances. Baby switching and abduction cases have been on the increase and lack of adequate specific legislation and regulations to combat the vice mean it will continue to be a social and criminal problem in the United States. Cases that have attracted a lot of public and media attention include the Hutzel hospital incident, where a mother was distracted, and her baby stolen from the hospital. The baby, Moses Champion, was found through public information after police circulated his picture in the media. Allegedly, the woman who had abducted the child had claimed she was pregnant and later stole the baby when her time was due (Los Angeles Times, 2000). In a 23-year abduction puzzle, Joy White lost her daughter Carlina White after taking her for treatment in the Harlem hospital center in New York. The case remained unsolved until her daughter contacted the authorities in 2011 (Wire Staff 2011). Though not as serious as child theft, baby switching is also a serious problem in hospitals as most health workers are usually busy and without adequate security measures they will not be able to prevent child thefts and child switching. The emotional anguish and pain that arises after a child is stolen is immeasurable and one baby stolen is too much pain. The society today is corrupted filled with perverts, child traffickers, and sex offenders and one never knows whom her child will end up with. By coming up with a standard way of ensuring their safety in government hospitals, the bill would be a relief to both family and hospital administrators as it would reduce child theft incidences. Through amending the title XVII Medicare under the Security Act of the United States and reimbursing various hospitals under the program. The act proposes enactment of effective systems and procedures in hospitals that will identify, track, and promptly report when a baby goes missing from a hospital through various secure security systems. The bill seeks to make it a crime under the federal law (failure to implement the security regulations and measures outlined by the bill) which would be subject to civil penalties. The United States law recognizes child abduction as the unauthorized removal of a minor from the child’s guardians. Perpetrators could be parents or strangers seeking ransoms or having other ulterior reasons. The Parental Kidnapping Prevention act (PKPA), 28USC 1738 A ensures non-conflict of custody determinations in different states. The Protect Act of 2003 gives law enforcement authorities the necessary facilities to deter, detect investigate, prosecute and punish crimes against children. None of the many federal laws specifically addresses the issue of child switching and child theft in hospitals. Thus, no legislation has outlined specific measures to be implemented by government hospitals to address the issue of child theft and switching and hence many criminals can easily steal a child from a hospital due to inadequate security measures. Members of the family are usually the ones who report these cases a fact that gives the criminals ample time to flee with the child. Most of these laws are ambiguous with no clear-cut directives on the role of state and federal officials on such incidences, until Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee presented her bill. On 7th January 2011, Ms. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas representative, introduced the bill to House of Representatives of the United States. It was referred and forwarded to the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committees on Judiciary Energy and Commerce. On 17th January 2011 the bill was forwarded to the Subcommittee on Health and on 24th January 2011 forwarded to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security for in-depth analysis, consultation and amendments, ANALYSIS OF LEGISLATION The bill “H.R.222” named - Infant Protection and Baby Switching Prevention Act of 2011 is composed of three chapters The first section describes the title of the bill; the second section outlines the inputs in the Medicare payments to the hospitals in agreements with Hospitals under section 1866 (a) (1) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395cc (a) (1)) while the third section is the Baby Switching Prohibition clause under Chapter 55 of title 18, United States Code. Amendments in Agreement Under section 1886(a)(1)of the social security act(42 U.S.C. 1395cc(a)(1). the federal government is mandated to use public funds to support hospitals that provide neonatal and infant care implement the requirements of the Infant Protection and Baby Switching Prevention Act 2011. Existing hospitals will be able to upgrade and incorporate the regulations and standards outlined by the secretary of health to prevent baby switching and abductions in their facilities. The hospitals incorporate security measures that will allow identification of all infant patients within the hospitals and will report any infant missing from the hospitals in real time. Under subsection (a) the secretary of state shall put down necessary avenues in collaboration with all stakeholders and hospitals to ensure that the regulations will address the variations and differences in size, location, and services provided by the hospitals to facilitate a smooth and efficient implementation of the act by the neonatal and infant care centers. The act requirements will be incorporated in all future hospital plans and will be required by law to be placed in future construction contracts. Baby Switching As a deterrent to planned and criminal baby switching, the act proposes the changing of chapter 55 of title 18 to be strengthened by adding clause "1205" specifically addressing baby switching. It proposes fines of not more than $250,000 being leveled against an individual who willfully alters identification records of an infant to facilitate misidentification of the infant. A fine not exceeding $500,000 will be leveled against an organization-facilitating baby switching. The fines may accompany a custodial sentence of not more than 10 years Violations and Purposed Penalties Hospitals under the Medicare program will be liable to a fine not exceeding $50000 and $25000 for a hospital with over 100 beds and with fewer than 100 beds respectively if they fail to upgrade and install security measures that protect the infant patients from theft and baby switching. By allowing federal government to use public money to fund the hospitals, the act would be successful when promulgated. Challenges that will face the act include existing hospital designs that would require a complete hospital overhaul in installing the security systems. The public and hospital administration would hugely support the initiative as baby switching and theft is a hot topic at the center of the public view. If passed, all that would be required by the secretary of health would be strict implementation of all the requirements for the law to succeed. CONCLUSION The existing laws do not address the loop holes that allow criminals to abduct and switch babies in hospitals nor do they specifically assign measures to curb the vice. Sheila Jackson Lee act; “the Infant Protection and Baby Switching Prevention Act 2011”, does. It gives the hospitals facilities for controlling the movement of infants and thus controlling and minimizing incidences of baby theft. The very crooked mentality of criminals who steal babies makes it plausible that most of the time the baby will be abused sexually, exploited, and sometimes used as a means of exhorting money from the baby’s parents. In unfortunate circumstances the abductions result in the death of the baby and the government should use all available resources prevent any one baby being switched or abducted. The severe penalties and custodial sentence would go a long way in deterring baby thefts and baby switching and with good implementation of the law. Baby thefts in the hospitals would be outdated. The bill should be supported by all stakeholders and expert consultations should be done to come up with fail proof security measures to combat the vice. REFERENCES Bill for Infant Protection and Baby Switching Prevention Act (2011), viewed on 23rd March 2012, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr222ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr222ih.pdf Los Angeles Times (2000), Baby Stolen from Mother at Hospital Is Found Safe, viewed 23rd March 2012, http://articles.latimes.com/2000/nov/24/news/mn-56570 http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PublicHomeServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US& National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Statistics viewed 26th March 2012 http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/files/resources/December-2010-NCMEC-Stats-on-Letterheadx.pdf The Library of Congress (2011-12), Bill Summary & Status, 112th Congress (2011 - 2012), H.R.222, viewed on 23rd March 2012, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:HN00222:@@@L&summ2=m& Wire Staff (2011), Daughter snatched from hospital reunited with mom 23 years later, viewed on 23rd March 2012, http://articles.cnn.com/2011-01-20/justice/new.york.missing.reunion_1_heartbroken-mother-sick-baby-baby-girl?_s=PM:CRIME Read More