25 Apr The Task Force Releases Issue Brief on Improving Quality Measurement in Maternal Health
WASHINGTON (April 25, 2023) – Today, the Maternal Health Hub (the Hub), run by the Health Care Transformation Task Force and funded by The Commonwealth Fund, released “Evolving the Maternal Health Quality Measurement Enterprise to Support the Community-Based Maternity Model.” The issue brief examines the historical emphasis on clinical quality measurement in maternity care and highlights the need to develop and implement measures that center the patient’s voice and needs.
The brief highlights two efforts- one led by the University of British Columbia Birth Place Lab, and the other a collaboration between the National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC) and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) – that have recognized the need for improved maternal quality measures and are actively working to address current gaps.
“The need for quality measures that focus on and measure the patient’s birthing experience is more important now than ever, as the nation’s maternal health crisis continues to affect Black women across the country,” said Tanya Alteras, Senior Director, Health Care Transformation Task Force and Project Director of the Maternal Health Hub. “It is exciting to see the work being done by the Birth Place Lab and NBEC and NCQA to change the measurement landscape.”
Since 2020, the Task Force’s Maternal Health Hub, with the support of the Commonwealth Fund, has met its mission to share learnings on effective value-based payment strategies for maternity care that center health equity and address the need for anti-racist health system transformation.
“The Maternal Health Hub brings together a wide range of stakeholders necessary to advance practical solutions to help solve the maternal health crisis, with a focus on those most disproportionately impacted,” said Laurie Zephyrin, Senior Vice President for Advancing Health Equity, the Commonwealth Fund. “This project, together with the Commonwealth Fund’s portfolio of health equity work, is moving the field forward in its understanding of how maternity care needs to be transformed.”
In addition to today’s release, the Hub has released other issue briefs over the past year that reflect the priorities and discussions of the Hub’s monthly Learning Community meetings:
- Lessons Learned from a Multi-Stakeholder on Medicaid Maternity Strategies describes the key challenges in today’s maternal care delivery environment such as lack of access to high quality, respectful prenatal care and comprehensive post-partum care; lack of prioritization of health equity in the maternity space; and inconsistent funding/support for community-based providers and care settings, before sharing recommendations for ways Medicaid can be leveraged to address these challenges.
- Using Managed Care Organization Contracts as a Lever to Address Health Equity in Maternity Care highlights the innovative ways states are using the Medicaid Managed Care contracting process to address health equity overall, and specifically to improve equity and close gaps in outcomes for maternity care.
For more information, please visit https://maternalhealthhub.org/ and https://hcttf.org.