Arkansas Chosen To Participate in New Maternal Care Model

Arkansas has been selected to participate in a new delivery model focused on improving maternal health care for enrollees in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) announced Monday.

Arkansas will receive a $17 million grant and technical assistance to implement the Transforming Maternal Health, or TMaH, model over 10 years. The model is a whole-person approach to pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care that addresses mothers’ physical, mental health, and social needs. It will seek to reduce disparities in access and treatment, improve outcomes and experiences for mothers and their newborns, and reduce overall program expenditures. We discussed the model in greater detail in a previous post.

States were invited to apply to participate in the TMaH model last year. Awardees selected are:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• California
• District of Columbia
• Illinois
• Kansas
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• New Jersey
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin

Arkansas DHS will lead the project in coordination with the Arkansas Department of Health and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. According to DHS, specific uses of the funding in Arkansas will include:

• Analyzing data to better target maternal health services.
• Educating providers and pregnant women on the benefits of leveraging doulas, community health workers, and midwives.
• Investing in technology to better serve pregnant women and providers.
• Building better technology infrastructure to collect and share data tied to maternal health measures.
• Redesigning Medicaid reimbursement rates and payment structures, with a focus on incentive payments to providers whose patients have healthier outcomes.
• Improving connections between healthcare providers and community-based organizations such as nonprofits and faith-based groups that also serve low-income Arkansas women.

The announcement comes as the Arkansas General Assembly prepares to convene for a legislative session that is expected to include maternal health as a key focus. Recognizing the need to address the state’s high rates of maternal and infant mortality, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued an executive order last spring establishing a state committee on maternal health. The committee issued a report in September containing numerous recommendations.

Maternal health in Arkansas has also been a major focus of ACHI’s recent work. Our efforts in this area can be viewed on our Maternal and Infant Health topic page.