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3/24/2026
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Senate passes Murray bills aimed at improving health while saving state money
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STATE HOUSE – The Senate today passed two bills sponsored by Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chairwoman Melissa Murray, one to streamline blood lead test analyses for children, and the other to provide self-measured blood pressure monitoring for pregnant and postpartum individuals eligible for RIte Start or Medicaid.
Both bills are aimed at improving health outcomes for Rhode Islanders, especially among those with fewer resources, while creating cost-savings and efficiency for the state at the same time.
The first bill (2026-S 2870) allows certified clinical laboratories to perform blood lead analyses on samples taken from children under age 6. Currently, private labs across the state draw blood for the tests, but state law requires them to send the samples to the state laboratory at the Department of Health for lead analysis.
Allowing certified private labs to perform the analysis themselves, as they do with other tests, would streamline the process, providing the results more quickly and reducing opportunities for errors. The bill requires that any certified private lab performing the test do so regardless of the patient’s ability to pay and at no cost to the patient.
“Private labs are already drawing the blood samples that are used to determine blood lead levels, but they are legally required to send them to the state lab for analysis. Allowing them to perform the test themselves, provided they have been certified for that analysis and are willing to do it without cost to the patient, will streamline the process, reduce the workload at the state lab and save the state money. Patients are also likely to get their results more quickly, meaning kids with elevated lead levels will be able to get help sooner,” said Chairwoman Murray (D-Dist. 24, Woonsocket, North Smithfield).
The second bill (2026-S 2871) would require the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to provide for self-measured blood pressure monitoring services as medically necessary for Medicaid- and RIte Start-eligible pregnant and postpartum individuals.
High blood pressure affects 5 to 10% of all pregnancies, and it can lead to serious, sometimes fatal, complications for the pregnant individual and their baby. Some of its warning signs can easily go unrecognized, leading some patients to go untreated until they experience serious complications.
Providing eligible at-risk patients with blood-pressure cuffs and teaching them how to use them and regularly monitor and report their results has been shown to improve maternal and infant health outcomes and produce cost savings.
“When we look at the reasons that women die in childbirth or the period right after delivery, high blood pressure and heart conditions are the biggest contributors,” wrote Alisse Hauspurg, a maternal fetal medicine physician at Women and Infants Hospital and Brown University, in testimony supporting the bill. “We have really strong data to say that when we give people a blood pressure cuff and teach them how to use it during pregnancy and after birth, we improve outcomes - not just for moms but also for babies.”
Dr. Hauspurg shared the story of a pregnant patient with high blood pressure who followed all her health care providers’ instructions, but whose insurance would not pay for a blood pressure cuff, which she could not afford herself. Two days after having a headache that she thought was related to being tired and pregnant, she experienced a stroke resulting from high blood pressure. Her baby had to be delivered at only 26 weeks’ gestation and spent months in the hospital.
“These are the kinds of situations that we can prevent with the passage of this bill,” she testified.
Both bills now go the House, where Rep. Jennifer A. Stewart (D-Dist. 59, Pawtucket) is sponsoring companion legislation to the blood-pressure monitoring bill (2026-H 7310).
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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