Maternal Health Providers

The act requires:

• A carrier offering a health benefit plan in the state, and the department of health care policy and financing when administering the "Colorado Medical Assistance Act", to reimburse health-care providers that provide health-care services related to labor and delivery in a manner that:
• Promotes high-quality, cost-effective, and evidence-based care;
• Promotes high-value, evidence-based payment models; and
• Prevents risk in subsequent pregnancies;
• Each health-care provider licensed by the state who regularly provides health-care services related to labor and delivery to:
• Be able to identify when to transmit and receive patient information and transfer and receive patients, across the facility's levels of care; and
• Coordinate with other providers to effectuate services across the facility's levels of care in a way that prevents patients losing access to care;
• The birth certificate worksheet form to include a place to report where the pregnant person intended to give birth at the onset of the person's labor;
• The department of public health and environment to engage in a stakeholder process to:
• Make recommendations to improve the collection and public reporting of maternal health data from various entities; and
• Study the use of research evidence in policies related to the perinatal period in Colorado; and
• The department of health care policy and financing, no later than July 1, 2022, to seek an amendment to the state medical assistance plan to provide 12 months of postpartum medical benefits to persons who qualified for benefits while pregnant.

To implement the act, the act appropriates:

• $77,993 from the general fund to the department of health care policy and financing based on the assumption that the department will receive $481,379 in federal funds, and the act reappropriates the anticipated $481,379 of federal funds; and
• $82,243 from the general fund to the department of public health and environment for use by the prevention services division.
  (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)