"Each year, 24,000 babies are born in the United States with some degree of hearing loss," said HRSA Administrator Claude Earl Fox, M.D., M.P.H. "Since early detection is the key to effective treatment, these grants will help assure that more newborns are screened before they leave the hospital and receive early intervention in the first 6 months."

Today, the average age at which children with hearing loss are identified in the United States is 12 to 25 months of age. When hearing loss is detected late, speech and language development is delayed, affecting social and emotional growth and academic achievement.

"The new four-year grants are the next step in making sure that once babies are screened and diagnosed with a hearing loss, their follow-up care doesn't fall through the cracks," said HRSA Associate Administrator for Maternal and Child Health Peter C. van Dyck, M.D., M.P.H. "We want to make sure that screening is coordinated at the community level with diagnostic services, early intervention programs, family involvement and a medical home."

For more than 30 years, HRSA's Maternal and Child Health Bureau has been involved in newborn screening and genetic testing. In 1989, HRSA funded a series of demonstration projects to assess the effectiveness of new technologies and to provide technical assistance to a number of hospitals and states in establishing and maintaining universal newborn screening programs. The grants awarded today are the latest HRSA effort to give newborns a healthy start in life.

HRSA is the lead U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agency responsible for improving access to health care for all Americans.

The list of grantees is attached:

HRSA Universal Newborn Hearing Screening State Grant Programs

• Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence, $100,000;
• University of Iowa, Iowa City, $100,000;
• University of Colorado, Boulder, $99,419;
• Alaska Department of Health, Juneau, $111,500;
• Hawaii Department of Health, Honolulu, $135,890;
• Illinois Department of Human Services, Springfield, $150,000;
• Ohio Department of Health, Columbus, $107,228;
• Louisiana Office of Public Health, New Orleans, $119,970;
• Utah Department of Health, Salt Lake City, $129,421;
• Kentucky Commission for Children, Louisville, $140,000;
• New York Department of Health, Rensselear, $141,851;
• State of North Carolina, Raleigh, $150,000;
• New Mexico Department of Health, Santa Fe, $85,020;
• Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston, $139,800;
• Georgia Department of Public Health, Atlanta, $150,000;
• Minot State University, Minot, $170,590;
• Idaho Department of Public Health, Boise, $108,968;
• Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, Madison, $94,939;
• New Hampshire Division of Public Health, Concord, $100,000;
• South Dakota Department of Health, Pierre, $96,358;
• Minnesota Department of Health, St. Paul, $200,702;
• South Carolina Department of Health and Environment Control, Columbia, $110,000;

Total for State Grant Programs: $2,741,656

Technical Assistance Center: Utah Department of Health, Logan, $332,329

GRAND TOTAL: $ 3,073,985