New moms experiencing mental health challenges now have access to a free, confidential 24-hour hotline to help them talk through their challenges with counselors trained to offer maternal mental health support, Biden Administration officials announced earlier this month. The new maternal mental health hotline, accessible for free by call or text to 1-833-9-HELP4MOMS, is live […]
More people had stable access to Medicaid coverage in the year after giving birth during the COVID-19 pandemic, which suggests that the Families First Coronavirus Response Act’s Medicaid continuous coverage provision, which linked receipt of enhanced federal Medicaid and CHIP funding to a prohibition on involuntary disenrollment from Medicaid during the COVID-19 public health emergency, […]
By Maggie Clark and Kay Johnson Last month, policymakers and advocates marked the fifth-annual Black Maternal Health Week and called attention to the policy changes that can help put an end to the country’s increasing and unacceptably high rates of maternal mortality, especially for Black women who die from pregnancy-related causes at a rate more […]
Today marks the start of a significant policy change that will extend lifesaving health coverage to hundreds of thousands of pregnant and postpartum people each year: the American Rescue Plan’s option to extend postpartum coverage from 60 days to one year after the end of pregnancy. CMS announced today that Louisiana was the first state […]
Among all the Medicaid beneficiaries who’ve had their health coverage protected through the COVID-19 public health emergency, pregnant women stand out, new data released from CMS show. As readers of the SayAhhh! Blog know, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act included a “continuous coverage” provision that linked receipt of enhanced federal Medicaid and CHIP funding […]
The 2022 state legislative season is nearing its end in the coming weeks, and this year we’ve continued to see significant efforts in a broad range of states working to extend the Medicaid postpartum coverage from the current cutoff of just 60 days to a full 12 months after the end of the pregnancy. Regular […]
