Study: 12-Month Postpartum Medicaid Boosted Care for Complications
A study published Oct. 14 by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health found that extending Medicaid coverage to 12 months postpartum increased use of postpartum care among mothers with pregnancy complications like diabetes and hypertension. Analyzing Medicaid claims data on births from 2019-2023 in New York and Texas, researchers found postpartum outpatient visits rose 28% for those with diabetes and 19% for those with hypertension in New York, with larger increases of 58% and 51% respectively in Texas, where baseline care rates were lower. Diabetes screening rose 5 percentage points in New York and 12 points in Texas, but screening rates later declined in Texas after coverage lapsed during the unwinding of COVID-era continuous enrollment protections. The findings point to coverage duration as a key driver of postpartum care utilization for high-risk mothers.