DC Medicaid Program Gives Moms-to-Be Access to mHealth, Remote Monitoring

Expectant mothers at several Washington DC hospitals are getting mHealth access to pregnancy care resources, including remote patient monitoring programs.

The resources come through a new partnership between Amerigroup DC, the Medicaid managed care organization serving the nation’s capital, and Babyscripts, a digital health company providing mHealth platforms for obstetrics care. It covers Medicaid members at George Washington University Hospital, Community of Hope and other DC-area regional hospitals.

“At Amerigroup, we have a steadfast commitment to supporting our members and ensuring they have access to not only the medical care they need but also educational healthcare resources that can improve quality of life,” Amerigroup DC Plan President Linda Elam said in a press release. “Improving perinatal health outcomes is a top priority for both Amerigroup and the District of Columbia and we’re confident that our work with Babyscripts will positively impact the health care experience and birth outcomes for our consumers.”

Healthcare providers and public health organizations are increasingly turning to mHealth and telehealth to push important information and resources to expectant mothers ahead of their due date, as well as after they’ve had their babies and gone home. The goal is to give these women on-demand access to care when they need it.

Three years ago, Wyoming’s Department of Public Health published the results of a two-year study in which pregnant women in the state’s Medicaid program who used a customized mHealth app were far more likely to consult with doctors during maternity and were far more likely to deliver healthy babies, while those not using the app were more likely to deliver low-birth-weight babies.

“Research aimed at improving U.S. birth outcomes has found that one of the most important determinants of birth outcomes is access to prenatal care,” that study noted. “Studies have found that even after adjusting for other differences like socioeconomic status and maternal age, infants born to mothers who receive no prenatal care weigh considerably less, on average, than those whose mothers receive prenatal care. In contrast, early prenatal care in the first trimester (the first 90 days) has been shown to have a significant positive effect on birth outcomes; for instance, a sample of white teenagers showed a 27 percent reduction in low-birth weight births when provided with early prenatal care.”

More recently, Montana state officials received $10 million in federal funding last year to create a Project ECHO telemedicine program aimed at helping rural and remote care providers improve obstetric and maternal care management. The five-year Montana Obstetric and Maternal Support (MOMS) program will use a telehealth platform to link those providers with OB/GYN experts to share expertise on a variety of issues.

“By bringing more resources to rural Montana, we hope to improve maternal health outcomes by collaborating on high-risk pregnancies, promoting the importance of prenatal care in the first trimester and identifying and consulting on these cases early in the process,” C.H. “Tersh” McCracken III, MD, FACOG, an OBGYN at the Billings Clinic and the new program’s medical director, said.

Through the Amerigroup DC-Babyscripts partnership, moms-to-be will receive access to educational materials in English and Spanish and at multiple reading levels through an mHealth app accessible on a smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC.

In addition, the program will coordinate care between the patient, the health system and her primary care provider, including care navigation to identify social determinants of health and RPM programs to monitor the patient’s gestational diabetes and blood pressure.

“Every mother and infant deserves access to high-quality healthcare, and connecting key stakeholders is crucial to delivering on that goal,” Juan Pablo Segura, Babyscripts’ co-founder and president, said in the press release. “This new partnership and the technology it offers is a promise to the women of this city that we can and will do better to improve maternal-child health outcomes.”