I 112th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 6402 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES September 13, 2012 Mr. Moran introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants to 10 States for demonstration projects for the expansion of State registries on childhood immunization or health to include data on body mass index (BMI), collected and submitted to the State by health care providers.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Surveillance, Tracking, Observation, and Prevention of Obesity Act of 2012.

2.

Findings

The Congress finds the following: (1)Childhood obesity is at epidemic levels in this Nation. (2)A surveillance system to monitor childhood obesity prevalence across the United States is needed to assess and address the situation. (3)Systems should be based on body mass index (BMI), calculated from measured height and weight of children, and should be implemented in all States and territories. (4)Any national system should ideally be built upon existing State-level public health infrastructure, such as immunization registries. (5)All 50 States currently maintain childhood immunization tracking systems; their usage to track childhood obesity data to build a national childhood obesity surveillance system would limit the need to create an entirely new or overlapping surveillance system. (6)Immunization information systems under subsections (a), (j), and (k)(1) of section 317 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247b) is frequently the backbone of more comprehensive child health information systems. (7)Existing immunization information systems can provide an assessment mechanism for childhood obesity prevalence and trends more accurate than that assessed from existing survey data and can measure the effectiveness of obesity intervention/wellness policies and programs already underway. (8)BMI is considered the gold standard for screening children for obesity, since it is based on routinely assessed measurements of height and weight. (9)Data should be collected by trained health professionals in clinical settings, not in a school setting. (10)Data collected must be interoperable between each State and have the ability to be analyzed at the local level. (11)The robust monitoring of local obesity prevalence rates in children is an essential first step in epidemic prevention and control. There is an urgent need for accurate population-based data systems to understand obesity prevalence, trends, and disparities among youth. The lack of data on intervention programs constrains the ability of planners and researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention efforts.

3.

Demonstration projects for expansion of State registries to include data on body mass index

Subsection (k) of section 317 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247b) is amended— (1)by redesignating paragraphs (3) and (4) as paragraphs (4) and (5), respectively; and (2)by inserting after paragraph (2) the following: (3)(A)The Secretary shall make grants to 10 States for demonstration projects for the expansion of State registries on childhood immunization or health to include data on body mass index (BMI), collected and submitted to the State by health care providers. (B)To ensure that data maintained by a State in a registry funded under this paragraph can be analyzed by the Federal Government and by other State governments, the Secretary shall require the registry to meet data standards and be interoperable. (C)The Secretary shall conduct a study of the demonstration projects funded under this paragraph and, not later than 3 years after the date of the enactment of this paragraph, submit to the Congress a report on the results of such study, including an analysis of the effectiveness of such projects. .