How data integration could help maternal health outcomes
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Breaking down data silos among government agencies and community organizations can be critical for connecting new mothers to crucial benefits programs, according to a new policy brief.
The U.S. continues to have the highest maternal death rate of high-income countries, despite such deaths often being preventable. One major threat to women’s maternal health outcomes is the loss of benefit coverage, which could be mitigated with better benefit enrollment data integrations, experts say.
New and expectant parents are particularly vulnerable as they face time and resource constraints that can impact their access to benefits, according to a policy brief published last month from the Aspen Policy Academy. For instance, pregnant people may face transportation barriers or changes in employment or housing status that create roadblocks for them to enroll in and apply for benefits available to them.
That’s why it’s crucial for benefit agencies and their community partners to “meet the mothers where they are,” said Nolan Green, co-author of the policy brief.
One way to do that is by building data integrations across benefit agencies, community clinics and other partners to help caseworkers streamline and expedite the enrollment process, according to the brief.
Leveraging benefits data to expand accessibility is particularly critical at this time as states grapple with revamping their Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program systems to comply with the new eligibility rules under H.R. 1, Green said.
Indeed, 52% of pregnant women believe they will lose their Medicaid coverage at some point under Medicaid redeterminations and policy changes at the federal level, according to recent survey findings.
The policy brief highlights how state agencies can use existing data sharing agreements and infrastructure to plug enrollment gaps that exist from siloed operations and processes among organizations.
Researchers suggest the California Department of Health Care Services, which oversees the state’s Medicaid program, develop an API-powered software interface to flag when a client is eligible for similar assistance programs but not yet enrolled, according to the policy brief.
That way, managed care providers under Medicaid can have better access to real-time client eligibility data in their case management systems to more efficiently link beneficiaries with services — like SNAP or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — during in-person appointments, Green explained.
The API interface should also include a feature that alerts clinic workers when new data indicates that a person enrolled in one benefits program is eligible for another to further streamline cross-benefit enrollment, the policy brief states.
“Without access to integrated enrollment data, providers may miss opportunities to discuss benefits when meeting with patients,” the brief reads. “This approach recognizes that every conversation with a provider is an opportunity to engage young mothers about the benefits they may be eligible for.”
Timely cross-benefit enrollment is particularly critical as a person’s income, health or housing status can change drastically throughout their pregnancy, Green said.
“A lot can change in a single trimester for a young mother — they can stop working and start relying on their partner more — so it's just crucial to be able to have that data on hand [and] … be responsive to that,” he said.
Agencies like DHCS should also ensure they weave data security and privacy considerations into such APIs that restrict and control who can access client information and the amount of client data they can view, said Kash Sridhar, a fellow at the Aspen Policy Academy.
Data privacy is particularly important when serving vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women of color, that may have grown skeptical of how all levels of government use their data as the federal government has attempted to access state data for law and immigration enforcement purposes in recent months, he explained.
While the policy brief focuses on actions DHCS can take in California’s Central Valley, it reflects practices that other states and jurisdictions can emulate, Kash said.
Most state and local governments have data sharing agreements, infrastructure and initiatives underway similar to what the policy brief recommends for DHCS, which can be leveraged to further expand benefits access or home-based care services, like doula programs, he said.
“We’re looking at holistic care, not just SNAP and WIC,” he added. “Creating a holistic support system for a mother, where anyone can have access to their eligibility enrollment information can help them be enrolled … is a framework that can be applied anywhere.”