Surveillance, Tracking, Observation, and Prevention of Obesity Act of 2012

Surveillance, Tracking, Observation, and Prevention of Obesity Act of 2012 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to make demonstration project grants for the expansion of state registries on childhood immunization or health to include data on body mass index collected and submitted by health care providers.

Requires the Secretary to study and report on the demonstration projects, including an analysis of their effectiveness.

[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6402 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6402

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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

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

SEC. 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.

SEC. 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.''.
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