HR6303-119

What This Bill Does

The CARE for Moms Act responds to maternal mortality findings with several programs. HHS through CDC must create a State-Based Perinatal Quality Collaborative grant program, with awards up to $250,000 per year, to sustain perinatal quality collaboratives in every State, D.C., and eligible territories. HHS must support regional centers of excellence for implicit bias, cultural competency, and respectful-care education for health professionals. It appropriates $50 million for fiscal year 2026 for grants or contracts to grow and diversify the full-spectrum doula workforce through training, scholarships, and recruitment from underserved communities. HRSA must run rural obstetric mobile health unit grants for States to purchase and equip units, train obstetric providers, address social determinants and wraparound services, protect personally identifiable information from law enforcement disclosure, report results, and support evaluation. Hospitals must notify HHS at least 90 days before obstetric unit closure and analyze community impact and service-gap mitigation. HHS must report within 24 months on where maternal health needs are greatest, Federal spending from 2000 through 2024, funding barriers, unsuccessful applications, and disaggregated data. The bill also raises and equalizes excise taxes across cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, discrete nicotine units, and other tobacco products.

Who Benefits and How

Pregnant patients, postpartum patients, infants, Black mothers, American Indian and Alaska Native mothers, and rural communities benefit from quality collaboratives, bias training, doula workforce investments, mobile obstetric services, closure notices, and maternal-needs analysis. Doulas, health professions schools, community health centers, Tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and community-based organizations benefit from grant and contract opportunities. Public-health agencies benefit from better data on maternal needs and tobacco-tax revenue or deterrence.

Who Bears the Burden and How

HHS, CDC, HRSA, Treasury, IRS, hospitals, States, and grant recipients must implement multiple grant, training, reporting, privacy, closure-notice, evaluation, and tax changes. Hospitals planning obstetric unit closures must provide 90 days notice and community-impact reports. Tobacco manufacturers, importers, distributors, retailers, and consumers face higher excise taxes and new categories such as discrete single-use units. Federal taxpayers fund the maternal-health appropriations.

Key Provisions

• Establishes State-Based Perinatal Quality Collaborative grants of up to $250,000 per year for every State, D.C., and eligible territories.
• Creates regional centers of excellence for implicit bias, cultural competency, and respectful-care education in maternal health.
• Appropriates $50 million in fiscal year 2026 to grow and diversify the full-spectrum doula workforce.
• Creates HRSA rural obstetric mobile health unit grants with privacy protections, State reporting, and Federal evaluation.
• Requires hospitals to notify HHS at least 90 days before closing obstetric units and explain community impacts and service-gap plans.
• Requires a maternal-health needs and Federal spending report covering 2000 through 2024.
• Raises and equalizes tobacco excise taxes across cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, discrete nicotine units, and other tobacco products.