A major hospital network in Massachusetts has now revamped its policies regarding babies born addicted to drugs in an attempt to address "significant racial and ethnic inequities" it claims are associated with substance abuse disorder.
On Tuesday, Mass General Brigham, the commonwealth's largest hospital group, announced that it will no longer automatically report that an infant has been born with drug addiction since the automatic reporting and other such policies "disproportionately affect Black individuals."
Current commonwealth law demands mandatory reporting of all infants with "physical dependence upon an addictive drug at birth." However, the hospitals affiliated with Mass General Brigham — including Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and Salem Hospital — will now encourage reporting such cases to child protective services only if the babies are "suffering or at imminent risk of suffering physical or emotional injury."