The Maternal Health Hub convened a meeting of maternity subject matter experts and CMS/CMMI leadership in 2022 to discuss payment and delivery strategies that would support a maternity model that addresses the ongoing racial and ethnic inequities in morbidity and mortality.
The Hub now releases “Lessons Learned from a Multi-Stakeholder Roundtable on Medicaid Maternity Strategies.” This brief describes the key challenges in today’s maternal care delivery environment such as access to high quality, respectful care; lack of access to comprehensive post-partum care (including behavioral health care); lack of prioritization of health equity in the maternity space; and inconsistent funding/support for community-based providers and care settings.
To address these challenges, the roundtable participants shared a number of potential solutions which are reflected in the brief, such as leverage existing policy and funding opportunities, establish Medicaid pay parity for midwives and birth centers, and develop payment reforms that support the community-based maternity model. The Task Force hopes that this resource contributes to the crucial, ongoing work of improving outcomes for all birthing people and newborns.
The Maternal Health Hub (the Hub) is run by the Health Care Transformation Task Force and supported by the Commonwealth Fund. The Hub leads a monthly Learning Community webinar series to identify and share learnings on essential components of equitable payment approaches that improve maternity care outcomes and lowers costs; if you are interested in joining, please sign up here.