DIGEST OF INTRODUCED BILL

Certification of midwives. Allows a person who is neither a physician nor a registered nurse to practice midwifery. Establishes the Indiana midwifery board. Sets qualifications for an Indiana certified professional midwife (CPM), including completion of the CPM credentialing process as administered by the North American Registry of Midwives. Allows for apprenticeship certification. Makes it a Class B misdemeanor for an individual to profess to be an Indiana CPM unless the individual is certified by the Indiana midwifery board. Provides the required elements of informed disclosure that an Indiana CPM must provide to a potential client before the midwife accepts the client for midwifery care. Requires an Indiana CPM to have a written collaborative plan of treatment with a licensed physician in order to provide services to at-risk clients. Provides that an individual is entitled to give birth in the presence of and receive assistance during the birth process from a midwife. Requires the office of Medicaid policy and planning and the office of the secretary of family and social services to adopt rules providing for Medicaid reimbursement for Indiana CPMs. Requires the Indiana midwifery board and the department of insurance to adopt rules providing for insurance and third party payor reimbursement for Indiana CPMs. Makes conforming amendments.