CMS Announces 15 States Selected for Transforming Maternal Health Model

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on January 6 the 15 participants that will join its state Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) Model. The states selected are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Washington, D.C., Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin.  

CMS released a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for state Medicaid agencies on June 26. Applications were due on September 20. The model was launched on January 1 and will run for 10 years.

According to CMS, TMaH focuses on improving maternal healthcare for people enrolled in Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). It will support participating state Medicaid agencies (SMAs) in developing a whole-person approach to pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care. The goal of the model is to decrease disparities in access and treatment. It aims to improve mothers' and newborns' outcomes while reducing program expenditures.

The three pillars of the model are listed by CMS as follows:

-          Access to care, infrastructure, and workforce capacity

-          Quality improvement and safety

-          Whole-person care delivery

CMS highlighted that the U.S. has disproportionately high rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes as compared to other high-income nations.

The model has a 3-year pre-implementation period, during which states receive targeted technical assistance to advance each model element and achieve required pre-implementation milestones, and a 7-year implementation period to execute the model.