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Medicaid Family Planning and Maternity Care Services: The Current Landscape

Find out about the current landscape of Medicaid and how the repeal ACA will impact certain aspects of Medicaid in this great article by Kaiser Family Foundation.

As the Trump Administration and Congress weigh major changes to Medicaid and programs that fund reproductive health care, new analyses from the Kaiser Family Foundation highlight the current state of coverage and challenges for family planning, pregnancy, and perinatal services in the Medicaid program that provides coverage for millions of low-income women across the nation.

  • The inclusion of maternity care as an essential health benefit has been the focus of a recent policy debate over the future of the Affordable Care Act. For nearly half of births in the U.S., Medicaid picks up the tab. A new survey of state-level maternity care policies under Medicaid finds that all surveyed states covered prenatal visits, but benefits such as genetic counseling, parenting and newborn education services, and home visits were not covered in some states. Similarly, all states included hospitalization benefits, but not all paid for deliveries in birth centers or at home.
  • Over half of states have established limited scope family planning programs under Medicaid. A case study analysis of Medicaid family planning programs in six states (AL, CA, CN, IL, MO, and VA) conducted in the summer of 2016 uncovered opportunities to improve enrollment in family planning programs; identified the importance of these programs for women who have difficulty affording premiums; and documented challenges faced by family planning clinics under Medicaid. Some ACA Medicaid expansion states are reconsidering the need for a separate family planning program under Medicaid, but most have maintained them.
  • Three quarters of reproductive age women on Medicaid are enrolled in managed care arrangements. A new analysis explores the experiences and perspectives of leaders of Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) and finds that MCOs rely heavily on safety net clinics including community health centers and family planning clinics such as Planned Parenthood to provide in-network family planning services to their members. MCO leaders identified churning in enrollment, the high costs of stocking IUDs and implants, and global hospital payment methodologies for maternity care as potential barriers to certain family planning services.

See the original article Here.

Source:

Author (2017 April 27). Medicaid family planning and maternity care services: the current landscape [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/press-release/medicaid-family-planning-and-maternity-care-services-the-current-landscape/