Changes to Medicaid prenatal program considered
The Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony Feb. 5 on a bill that seeks to expand coverage under the state’s Prenatal Plus Program and eliminate the program’s scheduled sunset date.
The program covers the cost of prenatal services for pregnant women eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program who a health care provider has determined are at risk for negative maternal or infant health outcomes. Those services began in January 2025 and are scheduled to expire June 30, 2028.
LB773, introduced by Lincoln Sen. George Dungan, would remove the sunset date and extend program services to eligible mothers for up to 60 days postpartum. The measure also would extend reporting requirements to 2034.
Prenatal services under the program include nutritional counseling, psychosocial counseling and support, general client education, health promotion and targeted case management. Under the bill, qualifying services would expand to include a minimum of two breastfeeding support sessions.
Dungan said the program is intended to reduce adverse health outcomes by addressing lifestyle, behavioral and nonmedical aspects of a mother’s life. In the first six months of the program, he said, 68 at-risk mothers were provided prenatal services.
“To let this program sunset would be a great detriment to moms across the entire state,” Dungan said. “A healthy mom equates to a healthy baby.”
Robert Wergin of the Nebraska Medical Association supported the measure, emphasizing the importance of extending services to include postpartum mothers. The most serious preventable complications — such as hypertension, diabetes, infection and depression — often emerge postpartum, he said.
“Extending case management through 60 days postpartum reflects the medical reality that pregnancy related care does not end at delivery,” Wergin said.
Madeleine Walker of the Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence also testified in support of LB773. Domestic violence survivors are nearly three times more likely not to receive prenatal care and two times more likely to delay care than women not experiencing domestic violence, she said.
“Access to health care is a protective factor against domestic violence victimization,” Walker said. “The Prenatal Plus Program meets the needs of pregnant survivors of domestic violence by connecting them with a variety of services that support their health and safety.”
Sydnie Carraher of the Nebraska Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative also supported the measure. She noted that medical risk factors and social drivers of health, such as financial barriers, substance use disorders and housing and food insecurity, can further complicate pregnancy outcomes.
“Mothers on Medicaid face higher rates of preterm birth, low birth weight [and] severe maternal morbidity and mortality,” Carraher said. “Improving birth outcomes in Nebraska requires upstream solutions … that address risk factors during pregnancy before they lead to an adverse outcome.”
No one testified in opposition to LB773 and the committee took no immediate action on the bill.
