68-1-2504 - Establishment of program Participation Rules and regulations. - Tennessee Statutes

68-1-2504. Establishment of program Participation Rules and regulations.

(a)  There is established the nurse home visitor program to provide regular, in-home, visiting nurse services to low-income, first-time mothers, with their consent, during their pregnancies and through their children's second birthday. The program training requirements, program protocols, program management information systems, and program evaluation requirements shall be based on research-based model programs that have been replicated in multiple, rigorous, randomized clinical trials and in multiple sites that have shown significant reductions in:

     (1)  The occurrence among families receiving services through the model program of infant behavioral impairments due to use of alcohol and other drugs, including nicotine;

     (2)  The number of reported incidents of child abuse and neglect among families receiving services through the model program;

     (3)  The number of subsequent pregnancies by mothers receiving services through the model program;

     (4)  The receipt of public assistance by mothers receiving services through the model program; and

     (5)  Criminal activity engaged in by mothers receiving services through the model program and their children. The program shall provide trained visiting nurses to help educate mothers on the importance of nutrition and avoiding alcohol and drugs, including nicotine, and to assist and educate mothers in providing general care for their children and in improving health outcomes for their children. In addition, visiting nurses may help mothers in locating assistance with educational achievement and employment. Any assistance provided through the program shall be provided only with the consent of the low-income, first-time mother, and she may refuse further services at any time. The program should be significantly modeled on the national Nurse-Family Partnership program.

(b)  The program shall be administered in a community or communities by an entity or entities selected under this part. For the purpose of this pilot program, if the commissioner determines that it is necessary in order to implement a pilot project for the program, then the commissioner is authorized to make a grant or grants without competitive bidding. If selection is made on a competitive basis, any entity that seeks to administer the program shall submit an application to the department as provided in § 68-1-2506. The entity or entities selected pursuant to § 68-1-2507 for implementing the project shall be expected to provide services for up to one hundred (100) low-income, first-time mothers in the community in which the entity administers the program. A mother shall be eligible to receive services through the program if she is pregnant with her first child, and her gross annual income does not exceed two hundred percent (200%) of the federal poverty level.

(c)  The department may promulgate rules pursuant to Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5, for the implementation of the program.

(d)  Notwithstanding subsection (c), the department may adopt rules pursuant to which a nurse home visitation program that is in operation in the state as of July 1, 2007, may qualify for participation in the program if it can demonstrate that it has been in operation in the state for a minimum of five (5) years and that it has achieved a reduction in the occurrences specified in subsection (c). Any program so approved shall be exempt from the rules adopted regarding program training requirements, program protocols, program management information systems, and program evaluation requirements, so long as the program continues to demonstrate a reduction in the occurrences specified in subsection (a).

[Acts 2007, ch. 530, § 1; 2008, ch. 1126, § 1.]