Congresswomen Nikema Williams & Ashley Hinson Call for Technology Improvements to be Utilized to Advance Maternal Health

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Nikema Williams (GA-05) and Congresswoman Ashely Hinson (IA-02) led a bipartisan congressional letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet C. Oz, MD and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) Director Abe Sutton to address maternal health. 

The representatives urged CMS to develop and test a demonstration model through CMMI that uses telehealth and remote monitoring technologies to improve maternal health outcomes. The letter calls for the CMS to leverage technology to make pregnancy and postpartum care safer, more accessible, and more effective, while generating evidence to support broader adoption of innovative maternal healthcare solutions.

Healthy Moms Healthy Babies America stands in support of Congresswoman Williams and Congresswoman Hinson’s bipartisan effort to improve maternal health outcomes.

The Members wrote:

“As sponsors of the Tech to Save Moms Act (H.R. 8317), we write to encourage the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), through the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), to pursue a demonstration model that advances the goals outlined in our legislation and leverages technology to improve maternal health outcomes nationwide.”

“The United States continues to face an unacceptable maternal health crisis, with disproportionately poor outcomes in rural, underserved, and high-risk communities. As CMS has previously recognized, innovative telehealth payment and service delivery models for maternal health represent an important opportunity to improve access to high quality care, particularly for patients facing provider shortages, transportation barriers, and other challenges that impede access to maternity care.”

The Members requested that the CMII evaluate, develop and test a demonstration model that:

• Expands access to maternal telehealth services and remote monitoring technologies for Medicaid beneficiaries during pregnancy and the postpartum period;
• Supports the screening, monitoring, and management of common pregnancy-related and postpartum health complications;
• Improves access to care in rural and urban underserved, low income, and high-risk communities;
• Evaluates the impact of technology enabled interventions on clinical outcomes, patient engagement, and program costs with an eye toward closing health gaps socioeconomic, geographic, and racial and ethnic divides; and
• Identifies best practices for broader adoption within Medicaid and other CMS programs.

The Members said:

“As we have stated publicly, innovative technology can play an important role in addressing our nation’s maternal health crisis, and we should be using every available tool to make pregnancy and postpartum care safer, more accessible, and more effective for families across the country. We appreciate CMS’s continued commitment to addressing the maternal health crisis and we look forward to working with you directly.”

Read the full letter to the CMS and CMMI here.