On July 26, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) unveiled its Maternity Care Action Plan to support the implementation of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis. The action plan takes a holistic and coordinated approach across CMS to improve health outcomes and reduce inequities for people during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. CMS’ implementation of the action plan will support the Biden-Harris Administration’s broad vision and call to action to improve maternal health.
Recommendations from the report include:
Coverage and Access to Care: CMS is working to improve access to comprehensive health coverage, including for those eligible through Medicaid and CHIP, the Health Insurance Marketplace®, and Medicare coverage; and to help ensure continuity of coverage from before, during, and after pregnancy.
Data: CMS is working to expand its data collection efforts, build a better understanding of key demographic drivers of health to identify disparities in care or outcomes, and coordinate across programs to identify gaps and best practices.
Quality of Care: As we develop new policy, CMS will engage with people with lived experience, and work with states, providers, and other key stakeholders to improve the quality of care that Medicaid and CHIP, Medicare, and Health Insurance Marketplace® enrollees receive during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum.
Workforce: CMS will work with states and sister agencies to identify opportunities to expand and improve access to a diverse maternity care workforce, including midwives and community-based practitioners, such as doulas and community health workers
Social supports: CMS will work to build connections between the care and supports CMS programs cover and the social supports provided by other federal, state, and local partners, with the goal of providing whole-person care to pregnant and postpartum enrollees.
Data: CMS is working to expand its data collection efforts, build a better understanding of key demographic drivers of health to identify disparities in care or outcomes, and coordinate across programs to identify gaps and best practices.
Quality of Care: As we develop new policy, CMS will engage with people with lived experience, and work with states, providers, and other key stakeholders to improve the quality of care that Medicaid and CHIP, Medicare, and Health Insurance Marketplace® enrollees receive during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum.
Workforce: CMS will work with states and sister agencies to identify opportunities to expand and improve access to a diverse maternity care workforce, including midwives and community-based practitioners, such as doulas and community health workers.
Social supports: CMS will work to build connections between the care and supports CMS programs cover and the social supports provided by other federal, state, and local partners, with the goal of providing whole-person care to pregnant and postpartum enrollees.
For more information, see the full report.
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