State Expands Medicaid Coverage for Moms & Babies
Update: May 2-19, 2022
On May 2, Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that Michigan’s Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies initiative, in part to expand Medicaid postpartum coverage to a full 12 months, was approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Under current federal requirements, Medicaid enrollees receive coverage for 60 days postpartum. Expanding coverage to a full year is intended to allow pregnant people, and their newborns, to have access to necessary health services, such as behavioral, dental, and substance use services. The extension also promotes the completion of postpartum depression screening.
In 2018, Michigan’s Maternal Mortality Surveillance (MMMS) Committee found that almost 50% of maternal deaths in the state were preventable and there was a persistent racial disparity among these deaths.
In Michigan, this expansion is expected to benefit approximately 35,000 pregnant and postpartum people annually.