UnitedHealthcare Targets Prenatal Care, Maternal Health Outcomes

UnitedHealthcare (UHC) has provided $175,000 to medical practice UWH of North Carolina to support group prenatal care and boost maternal health outcomes for pregnant people across the state.

UWH of North Carolina is a branch of Unified Women’s Healthcare that operates 51 practice offices in North Carolina and South Carolina that consist of over 200 physicians. The practice offers in-house laboratory services, nutritional counseling, mammography services, and midwifery services to its members.

The partnership with UHC and accompanying funds will help launch and sustain the CenteringPregnancy care model in North Carolinian OB-GYN clinics.

CenteringPregnancy promotes group prenatal care sessions in which up to 12 pregnant people with similar due dates join each other for 10 prenatal care visits with their providers. The visits are open to partners and support people as well.

Before meeting privately with their provider for a clinical assessment, the pregnant individuals measure their weight and blood pressure and record their health data.

According to the press release, group prenatal care has improved birth outcomes by influencing factors such as rates of breastfeeding and screenings for postpartum depression. The care model has also helped lower the risk of preterm births and low birth weights by educating people about the importance of pregnancy spacing.

Four OB-GYN clinics suggested by local healthcare providers will benefit from the care model for the first time. The clinics include Laurel OB-GYN in Asheville, Catawba Women’s Center in Hickory, Carteret OB-GYN and Associates in Morehead City, and Wayne Women’s Clinic in Goldsboro.

Additionally, the funding will help support four clinics that currently use the group prenatal care model, including Chapel Hill OB-GYN in Chapel Hill, Triangle Physicians for Women in Cary, Durham Women’s Clinic in Durham, and Lyndhurst OB-GYN in Winston-Salem.

The UHC and UWH of North Carolina partnership also aims to address racial health disparities that impact prenatal care and maternal health across the state.

“We recognize that poor maternal health outcomes remain high among women in North Carolina, and that Black women and infants represent a disproportionate share of adverse outcomes,” Anita Bachmann, chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of North Carolina, said in the press release. “Access to quality prenatal healthcare will help close the gap on health inequity.”

North Carolina has a high infant mortality rate and has seen 808 infant deaths since 2019, according to the CDC.

The state’s preterm birth rate is also higher than the national average, according to March of Dimes, a nonprofit committed to improving the health of mothers and babies. The preterm birth rate for Black mothers in the state is 46 percent higher than other mothers.

Black pregnant people are three times as likely to die from complications from pregnancy and experience maternal morbidity at twice the rate of their White counterparts.

UHC’s funding to expand the CenteringPregnancy initiative may help increase access to prenatal care for Black individuals.

In addition to the collaboration with UWH of North Carolina, the payer and its parent company, UnitedHealth Group, have worked to support maternal health outcomes by partnering with March of Dimes and granting $2.85 million to the nonprofit, the press release noted.

The payer’s philanthropic branch, the United Health Foundation, also partnered with the nonprofit organization CAMBA to increase prenatal care access for underserved and homeless people in Brooklyn.

It is critical for payers to address maternal disparities, especially when women of reproductive age and children are continuing to see declines in their behavioral and physical health.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois partnered with community-based organizations in Chicago, where pregnancy-related mortality rates are six times higher among Black people than White people. The payer donated $350,000 to six organizations to increase in-person and virtual maternal and prenatal support.