The Institute for Medicaid Innovation (IMI)’s new national midwifery learning collaborative offers a rare opportunity for stakeholders across multiple levels of maternal health to join in discussion to identify ways to reduce maternal health disparities. Through funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, IMI will gather decision and change-makers across selected states including leaders from Medicaid health plans, community organizations, health providers, and state Medicaid agencies. Through a highly competitive application process, the following state teams were selected for participation:
- Arizona
- California
- Kentucky
- Michigan
- Washington
These five state teams will participate in a three-year intensive learning collaborative that includes guidance and support on determining long-term solutions to integrating, implementing, and funding midwifery-led care in their state. Each state-based team includes representation from state Medicaid agencies, Medicaid health plans, midwifery practices, and community organizations. At the end of the collaborative, the teams will have identified shared goals to advance midwifery-led models of care, strategies to achieve those goals, piloted and evaluated their efforts, and charted a course to continue to advance these models in their state.
IMI is a national hub for maternal health innovation in Medicaid managed care. The new collaborative builds off the work of IMI’s previous maternal health initiatives: “Improving Maternal Health Access, Coverage, and Outcomes in Medicaid,” a report outlining the evidence-based research supporting maternal health initiatives, such as midwifery-led care; and the organization’s eight-part learning series overviewing the policy and care opportunities in midwifery-led models of care.
Last week on September 23rd, the MLC officially got to work with their first states’ team meeting.
Eleven organizations comprise the “Kentucky team”, all committed to promoting midwifery-led care throughout the Commonwealth:
- Frontier Nursing University
- Humana Health Horizons
- Hope’s Embrace
- Kentucky Birth Coalition
- Kentucky Chapter of NACPM
- Kentucky Department of Medicaid Services
- Kentucky Voices for Health
- Louisville Coalition for Black Maternal Health
- Mama to Mama
- UK Midwives
- UofL Midwives
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