Mississippi reviews infant deaths and protects confidential health review records

The Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Panel reviews deaths and recommends ways to prevent infant deaths. The panel's main work covers deaths before birth and deaths of infants up to one year of age in Mississippi. The State Department of Health chooses members from different fields and assigns staff to help. The public annual report includes death counts, causes, information about affected groups, and recommendations for using state resources. The law took effect July 1, 2026. Reports are due to the Legislature's public health committee chairs on or before December 1 each year.

The panel must closely review medical histories when an infant or child dies suddenly and unexpectedly. Reviews cover the infant's or child's medical and prenatal records and, when applicable, the mother's health records. Reviews must follow nationally recognized best practices. They should consider relevant vaccinations and treatments without limiting how far back records reach. State health officials must verify reports to the national sudden-death registry and vaccine reaction reporting system, and submit missing reports. Health care providers' separate reporting duties still apply.

Doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and relevant agencies and officials must give the panel access to needed records. Provider records include relevant records of the person who died and their birth mother. Agencies' duties include infant death and near-death reviews. Doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies must provide reasonable access. Good-faith efforts to share records are protected from civil damages and criminal or disciplinary action. The panel sets deadlines for agencies and officials. Extensions require good cause documented in writing. The panel may offer up to ten business days to fix noncompliance unless delay would seriously impair its work. Courts can order compliance and must award reasonable enforcement costs, including lawyer fees, to the winning party. The panel's authority does not extend to licensing sanctions, fines, or discipline beyond the stated rules for enforcing data requests.

Required state health review records are confidential, and covered review discussions can occur in closed meetings. The broader protections cover legally required State Department of Health illness and death reviews, including child, maternal, and infant death reviews. The infant panel's records and proceedings are protected from public access and court demands. Information available independently can still be used in court. Under the broader closed-meeting rule, discussions must concern confidential review matters. Final votes on policies, rules, or regulations that apply broadly must be public unless another legal exception allows closure. Required public reporting continues, including the infant panel's report and recommendations.

The State Department of Health keeps certain radioactive-material and radiation-device records confidential. Covered records identify materials, devices, or licensed holders and related details when disclosure would reasonably be expected to threaten public health, safety, or security. Exceptions allow disclosures required by federal law or to government bodies for official regulation, law enforcement, emergency response, or public health work. The protection does not cover summaries without identifying or security-sensitive details, or information that the law requires to be public.