State & Community Health Actions
Recommended State Policy Actions to Address the Maternal Mortality Crisis
HIMSS, along with our partner REACH, hosted Developing a Digital Tech-Enabled Maternal Health Action Plan: A Roundtable for State Engagement, where participants discussed model practices and strategies that can be utilized by state and local health organizations in the battle to lower the U.S. maternal mortality rate
Recommended State Momnibus legislation should:
- Enable access to digital self-monitoring tools for women via Medicaid programs at little to no out-of-pocket cost to the patient
- Strengthen and provide support for women's health, family planning, and reproductive health services by increasing and improving reimbursement for care starting with preconception through all phases of pregnancy and the first year postpartum, via screening, treatment, monitoring, support services and integrated telehealth models for maternity care services.
- Provide funding to expand the use of technology-enabled collaborative learning and capacity models for pregnant and postpartum women
- Provide funding for electronic data collection, surveillance, and research on maternal health outcomes during the ongoing COVID–19 public health emergency
- Develop cross-sector data platforms or data lakes by collaborating with health information exchanges, and other community partners to inform collection and analysis by state maternal mortality review boards.
Dobbs ruling raises maternal health equity and data privacy concerns
HIMSS recommends that at the core of any privacy legislation, individuals must be in a position of greater empowerment to direct their consumer preferences without compromising the privacy and security of that data. This is especially true for maternal health, yet under any scenario, the fundamental principles are that the individual is involved, engaged, and at the center of any decision-making involving sharing their data.
Listen to Uma Ahluwalia
The Key to Improving Maternal Health
Listen to Uma Ahluwalia, MSW, MHA, Managing Principal, HMA, and former director of the Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Health and Human Services discuss why state and local governments are key to improving maternal health.
Learn from Hannah K. Galvin
The Importance of "Equitable Interoperability"
Learn from Hannah K. Galvin, MD, FAAP, FAMIA, Chief Medical Information Officer, Cambridge Health Alliance to learn about the importance of “Equitable Interoperability” as it relates to maternal health privacy, security policies and standards.