New Research from IMI – Innovation in Maternal Depression and Anxiety: Medicaid Initiatives in California & Nationwide

Erin Smith, MS

Maternal behavioral health disorders affect women, infants, and families across the country. The Medicaid program plays a critical role in ensuring reproductive-aged women have access to the appropriate health care services in the perinatal and postpartum periods. Low-income women and women of color, populations that are disproportionately affected by maternal behavioral health disorders, have high rates of enrollment in the Medicaid program. As such, it is critical that research on maternal depression and anxiety includes women in the Medicaid program.

IMI’s latest research project, funded by the California Health Care Foundation, Innovation in Maternal Depression and Anxiety: Medicaid Initiatives in California and Nationwide, explores how Medicaid health plans and community-based organizations (CBOs) across the nation are working to address maternal depression and anxiety. Specifically, the report contains in-depth case studies on a number of Medicaid health plans and CBOs that are exploring or have implemented initiatives to address maternal depression and anxiety, including Gateway Health Plan, Open Source Wellness, Health Plan of San Joaquin, BlueCare Tennessee, Generate Health, LA County Department of Health Services, Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms (MCPAP for Moms), and Maternal Mental Health NOW. The report also highlights a collaboration between LA Care (a Medicaid health plan) and Maternal Mental Health NOW (a CBO) and how the two organizations are addressing maternal depression and anxiety.  

In addition to outlining current health plan and CBO initiatives, the report also includes a checklist for health plans on how they can develop their own initiatives to address maternal depression and anxiety. Specifically, the checklist contains items for health plans provider network, medical benefit, and pharmacy benefit.

You can download the full report here and can access a one-pager for the report here.

This project was funded by the California Health Care Foundation.