Experts discuss first-year moms
High mortality rate a concern
HOT SPRINGS — Members of the Arkansas Maternal Mortality Review Committee met with local medical professionals, emergency responders, charitable organizations and representatives of area schools to discuss the high rate of mortality among mothers in the first year after the birth of a child.
Dr. William Greenfield, chair of the committee, said the maternal mortality rate in Arkansas is one of the highest in the nation, and the committee is charged to find a way to improve those outcomes.
“That review committee is going to drive a lot of the conversations as we determine how we stack up as a state, where we fit nationally in issues of maternal health,” he said.
“You’ve probably seen things on the news that gave attention, that put us toward the bottom 45, 46, as low as 50 in the nation. We have a committee that is made up of about 21 different folks from around the state, and … we have the opportunity to review charts of moms who died within one year of pregnancy.”
Greenfield said there are 35,000-38,000 births annually in the state, and more than half those are covered by Medicaid. One concern raised was the termination of Medicaid benefits 60 days after birth.
“You’ve got Medicaid up until 60 days, but about a third of our maternal deaths actually occur after days 43 up to 365,” he said.
“So if there is no access to care or a barrier to care, being number one, the patient may need care but is now falling out of the pregnancy Medicaid, is there anything that we can do or anything that should be done to help make sure that they are connected with the resources that are available?”
“I’ve been practicing medicine 20-plus years, but I will be the first to admit that my intimate, detailed knowledge of all of the nuances of Medicaid is probably not much better than a lot of folks in this room. And we’re an informed audience,” he said.
“How can we sort of bridge that? Because what you said is, what happens when the patient is Day 62 and that’s when the mental break begins and then there’s no connection back to a primary care provider.”
One suggestion was to have hospitals ask about the mother’s health coverage before she leaves the hospital. The hospital can then aid the mother in completing any paperwork for the process, since they already do that for ARKids.
“I think we can all agree that the stack of paper that you get when you go home after any hospitalization is probably not all read in detail,” Greenfield said. “I’m going to go out on a limb. Now, let’s send you home with your newborn and … I don’t know how much they can take on in that process of actually doing all the steps. We have the best of intentions. The box is checked, but is the work actually being done?”
Cassie Cochran, the deputy secretary for public health programs for the Arkansas Department of Health, said all of the concerns raised at this and the other community stakeholder meetings which are set across the state will be compiled into a report to be presented to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders later this year.