In 2022, there have been about 22 maternal deaths for each 100,000 reside births in america. That’s the highest rate of maternal deaths amongst high-income nations worldwide.
That sobering statistic appears to have caught the eye of policymakers throughout the nation as a number of states have turned in latest months to know-how to enhance maternal well being.
In February Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed the Wholesome Mothers, Wholesome Infants Act (HB 1427), requiring the state’s Medicaid program to “reimburse for medically mandatory distant ultrasound procedures” and steady glucose displays for gestational diabetes.
The identical month Virginia lawmakers handed laws (HB 1614) offering for the fee of medical help for “distant affected person monitoring providers,” together with the monitoring of “weight, blood stress, pulse, pulse oximetry, blood glucose, and different affected person physiological information.”
The worldwide healthcare firm Philips additionally introduced a new partnership with the state of Georgia to supply distant affected person monitoring of sufferers with maternal hypertension and diabetes.
Final yr, the consulting agency Deloitte printed a 2,600-word article extolling the potential digital instruments for addressing maternal mortality.
The article was based mostly on a survey of two,000 ladies who have been pregnant over the earlier two years. That research discovered that “digital instruments might increase maternal well being empowerment, with greater than 70% of respondents utilizing digital instruments to handle particular well being wants, going past accessing well being care and receiving or sending communication.”
The authors of the article wrote: “Whereas not a silver bullet, digitally enabled care and instruments might assist improve entry to and utilization of well timed and tailor-made care.”
Their message could also be catching on with state legislators throughout the nation.
States Taking Have a look at Maternal Well being Tech
At the very least 8 states have launched payments coping with tech-related maternal well being this yr, in line with the State Web® legislative monitoring system. A type of measures, Arkansas HB 1427, has been enacted. One other was handed by the legislature in Virginia (HB 1614) however was returned to the Home with suggestions from Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).
States Think about Number of Tech-Associated Maternal Well being Proposals
A search of the LexisNexis® State Web® legislative monitoring system turned up a minimum of 20 payments coping with tech-related maternal well being in 8 states, together with Arkansas’ HB 1427 and Virginia’s HB 1614. Among the many different measures are:
- Georgia HB 649 and HB 925, which would offer for the institution of a “three-year pilot program for distant maternal psychological well being screening and monitoring.”
- Maryland HB 553 and its companion measure SB 94, which might require Medicaid protection of self-measured blood stress monitoring for pregnant ladies. In the identical state, HB 1538 would set up a maternal well being distant monitoring pilot program.
- New York SB 7110, a failed measure that may have established a distant maternal well being providers pilot program for Medicaid recipients that included “distant non-stress take a look at know-how” and “distant ultrasound know-how.”
- Tennessee companion measures HB 867 and SB 898, which might create a pilot program to supply “improved maternal well being care by distant affected person monitoring for hypertension and diabetes.”
In July, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, a nonprofit that helps state and territorial public well being officers, recognized maternal well being, notably maternal mortality, as a top priority for well being policymakers. Maternal mortality was additionally recognized as a precedence within the federal Workplace of Illness Prevention and Well being Promotion’s Healthy People 2030 framework, which units data-driven goals to enhance well being outcomes in america.
If the know-how to handle maternal mortality continues to pan out, different states might be fast to leap on this bandwagon.
—By SNCJ Correspondent BRIAN JOSEPH
Visit our webpage to attach with a LexisNexis® State Web® consultant and learn the way the State Web legislative and regulatory monitoring service might help you determine, observe, analyze and report on related legislative and regulatory developments.
