AN ACT relating to freestanding birthing centers.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 216B to define "freestanding birthing center"; require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to promulgate updated administrative regulations to establish licensure standards for freestanding birthing centers, including requiring accreditation by the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers, compliance with the American Association of Birth Centers' Standards for Birth Centers, and consistent plans for transfer and safe transport to a hospital as needed, and to delineate medical malpractice insurance requirements for centers; exempt a center with no more than four beds from certificate-of-need requirements for establishing and licensing a freestanding birthing center; state intent not to limit or expand liability of a center or health care provider or facility; add requirement for medical malpractice insurance for freestanding birthing centers; prohibit abortions in freestanding birthing centers; amend KRS 216B.015 to include freestanding birthing centers in the definition of "health facility"; amend KRS 216B.020, 196.173, 211.122, 211.647, 211.660, 213.046, 214.155, 214.565, 214.567, 214.569, 216.2920, and 216.2970 to conform; provide that the Act may be cited as the Mary Carol Akers Birth Centers Act.