Shenango Valley News

The Pennsylvania Senate has passed a bill aimed at providing essential care for medically fragile infants by ensuring access to pasteurized human donor milk. Sponsored by Senator Michele Brooks, the legislation known as Senate Bill 500 or Owen’s Law mandates Medical Assistance coverage for prescribed pasteurized human donor milk for children under one year old in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

The bill specifies that the donor milk must be sourced from a licensed milk bank in Pennsylvania or through a hospital licensure process as per the Keystone Mother’s Milk Bank Act of 2020. This measure targets very low birth-weight babies and other medically compromised infants who are at risk of severe health complications, potentially resulting in extended hospital stays, multiple medical procedures, lifelong disabilities, or even death.

Senator Brooks highlighted the case of Owen, an infant from Indiana, Pennsylvania. "Owen – whose family lives in Indiana, Pa. – was born at a gestational age and birth weight slightly below hospital criteria that would have made him eligible to receive human donor milk. Owen sadly passed away after contracting a serious gastro-intestinal inflammation. Had my bill already been enacted, Owen would have received donor milk because of his birth symptoms and medical needs," she said.

Donor milk is also prescribed for infants with heart issues and conditions like neonatal abstinence syndrome, which affects babies exposed to opioids or other substances during pregnancy. The use of donor milk is recognized as a cost-effective strategy to enhance health outcomes while reducing healthcare expenses.

To qualify for this coverage under Owen's Law, it is required that the child's mother cannot produce sufficient breast milk due to medical or physical reasons. The legislation aims to assist infants who cannot thrive on specialty formulas available commercially or those with specific medical conditions necessitating human milk.

Having secured unanimous approval from the Senate, the bill will now proceed to the House of Representatives for further consideration.