This Intervention Helps Underserved Women Access Needed Postpartum Care

Pregnancy and childbirth can exacerbate many health risks, especially among underserved women or those who have a hard time getting health care. Diabetes, hypertension, and depression are all serious health conditions that occur frequently during pregnancy and childbirth, and are more common (during pregnancy and overall) among racial and ethnic minority women. Many women with these conditions have worsened health throughout their life course. Yet pregnancy and the postpartum period also present an opportunity for providers to intervene and improve the health trajectories of these women by connecting them to health care, helping them manage chronic conditions, and setting them and their children on the road to a healthier future. Improving care for underserved women is an underlying theme of my work at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where my colleagues and I have introduced an evidence-based intervention to prioritize getting Medicaid-insured women in for a postpartum visit—and using that visit as a chance to manage other medical issues and connect these women with follow-up care. The intervention design was recently published in the Maternal and Child Health Journal and is based on our previous work in this area. Nationally, 80 percent or more of commercially insured women who give birth have a timely postpartum visit, as defined by Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) guidelines. However, the rate is closer to 60 percent among those ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Health Equity Medicaid and CHIP Payment Policy Quality maternal depression Maternal Health postpartum care Primary Care Women's Health Source Type: blogs