Legislation that would require incidents of sudden heart attacks in student athletes to be reported to the state has passed a state Senate committee and could go to a full Senate vote by the end of June.
The bill (S1911), known as the “Children’s Sudden Cardiac Events Reporting Act,” would require health professionals, who diagnose the condition or determine death was caused by sudden cardiac arrest, report the event to the state Department of Health and Senior Services.
The legislation, which passed the Senate health committee Monday by a unanimous vote, also establishes a data base that includes all records of sudden cardiac events.
Sen. Fred Madden (D-4, of Washington Township) sponsored the bill which was crafted from recommendations by the Student Athlete Cardiac Screening Task Force, which he established last year.
“There will be a committee put together to set the parameters of what information should be reported to the commissioner of health, and to work with the commissioner of education and (Department of) Children and Families to come up with proper instrument to collect the data,” the senator added.
Madden said this bill “is the first measure” in addressing sudden cardiac deaths in student athletes, a phenomenon that causes 100 teenage deaths nationwide every year.
While the senator is working to get the reporting act through the Senate by the end of next week, two more bills related to the cardiac incidents in children will be making their way through other Senate committees.
“You can never just say because one of three bills makes it through unanimously, that it will with the others,” Madden said Tuesday. “I would be optimistic that when the bill is put in front of them and they read it, understand the research and why there is a need to pass it, I’ll get the majority of the (committee) votes.”
A second bill, which calls for more thorough cardiac screenings and pre-participation paperwork for student athletes, is in the Senate’s education committee. The third, a bill to require medical insurance companies to cover cardiac-specific pre-participartion medical exams, is being reviewed by the commerce committee.
“I’m prepared to deliberate on the bills and address the concerns,” Madden said. “When you start mandating requirements on professionals, and screening tools and measures, you just don’t know who would have issues with it.”
Madden does expect the insurance industry to weigh in on the bill concerning exam coverage.
“I hope that if the industry has problems with the mandate, they would bring solutions to the table.”
Contact Carly Romalino at cromalino@southjerseymedia.com. Follow Carly Romalino and the Gloucester County Times on Facebook.
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