States Turn to Tech to Help Address High Maternal Mortality

In 2022, there were about 22 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births in the United States. That’s the highest rate of maternal deaths among high-income nations worldwide.

That sobering statistic seems to have caught the attention of policymakers across the country as several states have turned in recent months to technology to improve maternal health.

In February Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act (HB 1427), requiring the state’s Medicaid program to “reimburse for medically necessary remote ultrasound procedures” and continuous glucose monitors for gestational diabetes.

The same month Virginia lawmakers passed legislation (HB 1614) providing for the payment of medical assistance for “remote patient monitoring services,” including the tracking of “weight, blood pressure, pulse, pulse oximetry, blood glucose, and other patient physiological data.”

The global healthcare company Philips also announced a new partnership with the state of Georgia to provide remote patient monitoring of patients with maternal hypertension and diabetes.

Last year, the consulting firm Deloitte published a 2,600-word article extolling the potential digital tools for addressing maternal mortality.

The article was based on a survey of 2,000 women who were pregnant over the previous two years. That study found that “digital tools could boost maternal health empowerment, with more than 70% of respondents using digital tools to manage specific health needs, going beyond accessing health care and receiving or sending communication.”

The authors of the article wrote: “While not a silver bullet, digitally enabled care and tools could help increase access to and utilization of timely and tailored care.”

Their message may be catching on with state legislators across the country.

States Taking Look at Maternal Health Tech

At least 8 states have introduced bills dealing with tech-related maternal health this year, according to the State Net® legislative tracking system. One of those measures, Arkansas HB 1427, has been enacted. Another was passed by the legislature in Virginia (HB 1614) but was returned to the House with recommendations from Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).

States Consider Variety of Tech-Related Maternal Health Proposals

A search of the LexisNexis® State Net® legislative tracking system turned up at least 20 bills dealing with tech-related maternal health in 8 states, including Arkansas’ HB 1427 and Virginia’s HB 1614. Among the other measures are:

• Georgia HB 649 and HB 925, which would provide for the establishment of a “three-year pilot program for remote maternal mental health screening and monitoring.”

• Maryland HB 553 and its companion measure SB 94, which would require Medicaid coverage of self-measured blood pressure monitoring for pregnant women. In the same state, HB 1538 would establish a maternal health remote monitoring pilot program.

• New York SB 7110, a failed measure that would have established a remote maternal health services pilot program for Medicaid recipients that included “remote non-stress test technology” and “remote ultrasound technology.”

• Tennessee companion measures HB 867 and SB 898, which would create a pilot program to provide “improved maternal health care through remote patient monitoring for hypertension and diabetes.”

In July, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, a nonprofit that supports state and territorial public health officials, identified maternal health, particularly maternal mortality, as a top priority for health policymakers. Maternal mortality was also identified as a priority in the federal Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s Healthy People 2030 framework, which sets data-driven objectives to improve health outcomes in the United States.

If the technology to address maternal mortality continues to pan out, other states could be quick to jump on this bandwagon.

—By SNCJ Correspondent BRIAN JOSEPH

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