Perinatal Health and Medicaid Portal (2011)

Multiple studies indicate that early elective deliveries carry significant increased maternal and fetal risks. Early elective deliveries include both inductions of labor and cesarean sections before 39 weeks gestational age without medical indication. 

Medicaid, as the dominant payer for births across the country, holds powerful levers for policy change. As part of the Medicaid Medical Directors (MMD) Perinatal Care Project, MMDs are working with state public health and vital statistics departments to coordinate perinatal quality improvement efforts, specifically on early elective delivery rates for the Medicaid population.

To better understand the extent of early elective deliveries within the Medicaid population and create a baseline for assessing the impact of policy change, the Project collected Medicaid delivery data from 22 states. Aggregated state data, representing over 830,000 singleton births in Medicaid, are reported in this portal through a series of tables and charts.

You can fast-track your understanding of perinatal data among Medicaid populations by:

• Reading more about the MMD Perinatal Care Project
• Learning more about perinatal data methodology
• Accessing the perinatal data tables and charts
• Getting more resources about perinatal data

This project was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Health Resources and Services Administration, including the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Medicaid Medical Directors also worked collaboratively with the National Association of Medicaid Directors, the Association of State and Territorial Health officials, and the National Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs, the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality, and the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative.