Perinatal partnership: A collaboration between a community health home visiting model and a medicaid managed care organization's perinatal care management team

While Massachusetts has some of the best birth outcomes in the nation, both persistent disparities and rising rates of preterm and low birthweight infants remain a public health concern. In response, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) developed a cost effective community health home visiting program model, the Early Intervention Partnerships Program (EIPP), that works to improve maternal health and birth outcomes, reduce racial and ethnic health disparities, and reduce overall healthcare costs.

EIPP has demonstrated capacity to identify and engage a diverse group of women (11% Black/African-American, 5% Asian, 43% Spanish/Hispanic/Latino ethnicity) with multiple and complex risk factors (32% positive violence screen, 34% positive alcohol, tobacco other drugs screen, and 57% positive emotional health screen). Although EIPP is a compelling program model, funding for EIPP was reduced by more than 45% due to decreasing state and federal budgets.

In early 2007, the MDPH approached the Massachusetts Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCO) with a collaborative programmatic and financial proposal that sought to partner a community health model (EIPP) with the existing medical network of care provided by the MCO (telephonic perinatal care management). The response has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic and through this collaboration, the MDPH and the Medicaid MCOs' are able to complement their respective services, enhance MCO member benefits, and improve the health and well-being of pregnant and post partum women and their infants.