Healthy Moms and Babies Act
The Healthy Moms and Babies Act would make a broad set of changes to Medicaid, CHIP, and Medicare aimed at improving maternal and perinatal health. It requires new state reporting on maternal and perinatal quality measures, including low-risk cesarean rates, and directs CMS to issue guidance and support demonstration projects on care coordination, telehealth, community-based maternal health programs, and social determinants of health. The bill also creates or expands federal studies and advisory structures to examine doula services, community health workers, remote physiologic monitoring, maternal mortality, severe maternal morbidity, and racial disparities in cesarean births.
The bill would also establish a new optional Medicaid maternity health home benefit for pregnant and postpartum women, with coordinated care, care plans, hospital notification procedures, data reporting, and planning grants for states to develop the option. It further requires Medicare hospitals to report NTSV cesarean data and directs the Secretary to incorporate that measure into hospital quality reporting. Additional provisions focus on workforce reskilling, perinatal quality collaboratives, transfer payment methodologies, and state collection of social determinants of health data for Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries.
The bill would amend multiple sections of the Social Security Act and the Public Health Service Act, primarily affecting Medicaid, CHIP, and Medicare program administration. It would impose new state reporting obligations, authorize federal guidance and grants, create a new Medicaid state plan option for maternity health homes, and require new CMS and GAO studies and reports. It also would expand federal data collection on social determinants of health and tighten Medicaid payment integrity oversight through more frequent PERM audits and state mitigation plans. Affected parties include state Medicaid and CHIP agencies, hospitals, maternity care providers, managed care organizations, doulas, community health workers, and pregnant and postpartum beneficiaries.
Based on the bill text and available context, the overall sentiment appears supportive and policy-driven, with the bill framed as a maternal health improvement package rather than a partisan measure. The introduction by Senators Grassley and Hassan suggests bipartisan sponsorship, and the committee status indicates hearings were held in the Senate HELP Committee. No recorded votes or transcript excerpts were provided, so there is no evidence of formal opposition or amendment debate in the available materials.
The most likely points of contention are administrative burden, federal-state implementation costs, and the scope of new reporting and data collection requirements. States may object to the new Medicaid reporting mandates, social determinants of health collection, and PERM-related planning requirements, especially where systems changes or privacy protections are needed. Providers and hospitals could also raise concerns about added quality reporting, cesarean data submission, and participation in maternity health homes, while supporters are likely to emphasize improved maternal outcomes, reduced racial disparities, and better coordination of care. Another possible area of debate is how broadly Medicaid should reimburse doulas, community health workers, telehealth, and other nontraditional supports.