Come join your colleagues for an interactive QI meeting around our latest project PPLARC.  For an agenda and to register, as well as call the Marriott to reserve your hotel room.

US Named the most Dangerous Developed Country to Give Birth

The rate of maternal mortality and morbidity in the US has continued to trend upward.  It has been estimated that 50% of maternal deaths are preventable.  A death is considered potentially preventable if it could have been averted by changes in the healthcare system or by a patient’s actions or if the severity of the condition could have been lessened before it progressed to an adverse outcome.  These data have generated a national focus on identifying interventions that might prevent maternal deaths and reduce severe maternal morbidity.  The following content for this issue of the Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing was dedicated to high risk and critical care obstetric topics and includes manuscripts on maternal mortality (Troiano and Witcher), electronic fetal monitoring of the critically ill obstetric woman (Cypher), foundational concepts for developing a critical care obstetrics program (McMurtry Baird and Martin), and healthcare strategies for preventing maternal morbidity and mortality in the postpartum period (Bingham, Suplee, Morris, and McBride).  TIPQC Maternal Leaders are meeting to address these critical issue in our state. 

Portions of a letter sent to all TN Payors for the full letter, contact TIPQC.

In November 2017, TennCare and its Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) initiated a policy that allowed separate reimbursement of all LARC devices, placed during the birth hospitalization in addition to the labor and delivery hospital stay payment. The physician’s professional fee for LARC insertion is billed and paid for separately as well. Blue Cross Blue Shield State of Tennessee employee health plan implemented the same policy in March 2018. We are writing this letter to ask your organization to evaluate its payment policies regarding LARC access during the birth hospitalization. Given the success of unbundling payments by the TennCare MCOs, we are confident similar mechanisms could be valuable to your plans.

Expanding coverage of PPLARC to all women by all commercial payors is supported by the hospitals currently piloting this intiaitive:  University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, as well as TIPQC, TennCare, The Tennessee Department of Health, The Tennessee Hospital Association, SisterReach and Tennessee ACOG. We would welcome the opportunity to schedule a call or in-person meeting to further discuss post-partum LARC policies.  We hope you will consider the importance and impact of payment policies that support increasing access to voluntary long-acting reversible contraception for the women of Tennessee.