Medicaid Coverage of Pregnancy and Perinatal Benefits: Results from a State Survey

The survey of state responses found that in 2015, most states cover a broad range of perinatal services in their full scope traditional Medicaid program, under full scope ACA Medicaid expansion, and pregnancy-related eligibility pathways. Most of the 41 surveyed states report that they cover basic prenatal services such as ultrasounds and vitamins, prenatal genetic testing, home visits, delivery in birth centers, postpartum visits, and breast pumps for nursing mothers. Coverage for services that help women and their families care for their children after delivery, such as childbirth and parenting classes, breastfeeding education and lactation consultation is less common. In particular, very few states cover doula supports despite research suggesting that this assistance results in better health outcomes.¹ While coverage requirements differ between eligibility pathways in some cases, for the most part, there is strong alignment within states for the various pathways.

Maternity care is typically reimbursed with a global fee that covers all care for pregnant women through the postpartum period. Some states reported that support services, such as childbirth and breastfeeding education are included in the global fee and are not reimbursed separately. In these cases, the structure of the benefit is not clear, particularly who would provide these services and the scope of services available to beneficiaries.

Medicaid enrollment across the country has risen significantly since the ACA’s passage but in states that have not expanded eligibility under the ACA, many women lose coverage after 60 days postpartum and become uninsured. Furthermore, it is important to recognize the ACA’s role in establishing a floor of benefits for pregnant women enrolled in the program in expansion states. The ACA’s requirement that newly eligible beneficiaries are covered for federally recommended preventive services means that pregnant women on the program in expansion states are guaranteed coverage for folic acid supplements, breast pumps, and several screening tests. Many states have structured their programs so all pregnant women on Medicaid are covered for their services regardless of the eligibility pathway that qualifies them for coverage.

The Medicaid program has a long history and excellent record of providing coverage for low-income pregnant women, with almost half of the nation’s birth covered under the program. Regardless of the outcome of current debates over the future of Medicaid or the ACA, the millions of low-income pregnant women that are served by Medicaid will continue to need to have access to coverage that includes the broad range of pregnancy-related services that help assure healthy maternal and infant outcomes.

Acknowledgements

The authors express appreciation for the assistance of several individuals who assisted with the preparation, testing, and refinement of the survey instrument, including Yali Bair of Ursa Consulting, Amy Moy from the California Family Health Council, Tasmeen Weik of the federal Office of Population Affairs, Melanie Reece of Colorado’s Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, and Lisa DiLernia of Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services.

We thank the following colleagues from Health Management Associates: Joan Henneberry for guidance and subject matter expertise; Dennis Roberts for database development and management; and Nicole McMahon for assistance with compiling the state data tables.

We also thank the Medicaid directors and staff in the 40 states and the District of Columbia who completed the survey on which this brief is based.