Inweekly has obtained the Fetal and Infant Mortality Review Annual Legislative Report, dated October 1, 2025. Full Report: fiar-annual-report-2025
Background: The Florida Department of Health presents this report to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, as required by section 383.21625, Florida Statutes. Fetal and Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) is a community-level, evidence-based process that reviews fetal and infant deaths, formulates programs, and influences policy that will lead to improving pregnancy and birth outcomes.
- The goal is to assess, monitor, and improve service systems and resources for women, infants, and families.
The report is by region. Region 1 includes Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties. The Case Review Team is the Escambia County Healthy Start Coalition.
I reported yesterday that the Infant Mortality Rate in Escambia County is 7.3 per 1,000 births, slightly higher than the region’s average of 7.0.
- Read Region 1 Report: FIMR Annual Report 2025 – Escambia
Case Review Team
The Case Review Team (CRT) seems to be similar to Rep. Salzman’s Maternal Health Task Force. However, it’s on the front lines, reviewing each infant mortality case.
The CRT identifies factors that are considered either protective or possibly contributing to poor outcomes.
Protective factors include services received by the mother or the family that promote healthy pregnancies and birth outcomes. Examples of protective factors include prenatal care, home visiting services, and health insurance.
Contributing factors are elements that increase the risk of a poor outcome. Examples of contributing factors include maternal pre-existing conditions, pre-term labor, or other fetal or infant medical conditions. The identification of protective and contributing factors guides the development of recommendations to address service gaps.
Escambia County Healthy Start is the lead coalition. It’s responsible for overseeing the tasks leading up to and including case review meetings. This includes case selection, case development, data entry, recruitment of medical abstractors and CRT members, and coordination of meeting events.
The Community Action Group receives recommendations from the CRT and is charged with developing and implementing plans leading to positive change within the community.
Unfortunately, Florida is a non-expansion Medicaid state, leading to significant coverage gaps pre-pregnancy and post-pregnancy for adults with minor children more than 1 year old. The ACA offers coverage to all adults up to 138% of the federal poverty level, yet Florida has declined to participate.
Insurance coverage supports better infant and mother outcomes and can actually save the state money in the form of preventative care. I’m interested to know why Salzman and Andrade would oppose this? (Other than the obvious partisan biases). As Andrade knows well, state-run alternatives like Hope Florida have been far from effective.