UnitedHealthcare Launches Maternal Remote Patient Monitoring Program in Tennessee

UnitedHealthcare is launching a new program in Tennessee that will use remote patient monitoring to monitor the health and progress of mothers-to-be.

The insurer is partnering with the Nashville-based Tennessee Initiative for Perinatal Quality Care (TIPQC) on a maternal and infant health initiative that will include both RPM and connected health programs to train staff in hospitals across the state. That effort includes a partnership with Regional One Health to use the Babyscripts mHealth app and platform to help OB-GYNs remotely monitor pregnant patients.

"One of the biggest contributors to health inequity in obstetrics, especially in Black women, is lack of access to adequate health care,” Danielle Tate, an OB-GYN with Regional One Health, said in a press release. “The pandemic has proven telehealth is a very effective way of providing health care to patients who would otherwise be without means. Programs like Babyscripts are great resources to aid in providing this type of care through real-time home monitoring and communication using state-of-the-art technology.”

The Tennessee program is one of several around the country using telehealth to address perinatal care, by giving soon-to-be and new mothers virtual access to care providers and resources to manage their health and that of their infant. Many of these programs are targeting hypertension and mental health services for mothers.

That’s a significant problem in Tennessee, which ranks among the worst in the US in maternal mortality (26.2 per 100,000 live births) and infant mortality (563 infant deaths since 2019, and where more than 17 percent of the population is a minority.

"It is unacceptable that Black women in the US have at least twice the rate of severe maternal morbidity, and are at least three times as likely to die from pregnancy related complications, compared to white women," Keith Payet, CEO of the UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Tennessee, sad in the press release. "We hope this new partnership is an important step toward addressing a leading cause of severe maternal morbidity and helps improve health outcomes in Tennessee."

Aside from the RPM program, UnitedHealthcare is contributing $280,000 to a new “train the trainer” simulation program that will teach maternal and infant clinical staff in hospitals across the state.

"Simulation training has proven to be beneficial in improving outcomes of high-risk pregnancy conditions,” Connie Graves, TIPQC’s statewide project lead, said in the press release. “Standardization of treatment and protocols has been shown to decrease maternal mortality and morbidity in all patients, with the largest improvement in outcomes in women of color. UnitedHealthcare’s decision to support a statewide simulation effort means that we can improve care for all pregnancies across the state of Tennessee and decrease disparities for both mother and babies."