{"id":35610,"date":"2024-02-16T13:31:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T19:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=35610"},"modified":"2024-02-16T14:04:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T20:04:41","slug":"medicaid-coverage-for-doulas-proposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=35610","title":{"rendered":"Medicaid coverage for doulas proposed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony Feb. 14 on a bill that would provide Medicaid coverage for doula services in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Terrell McKinney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB1278, sponsored by Omaha Sen. Terrell McKinney, would require the state Department of Health and Human Services to provide Medicaid coverage for doula and full spectrum doula services, beginning no later than Jan. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n

The bill defines a doula as a trained companion who supports another individual and their family through a significant health-related experience. A full spectrum doula is defined as a trained companion who provides emotional, physical and informational support for individuals before, during and after labor and birth.<\/p>\n

The bill also would require DHHS to establish a workgroup of stakeholders and experts to develop an implementation plan by Oct. 1, 2025, that includes provider reimbursement rates and core competencies required for a doula to qualify for reimbursement. There currently is no mandatory licensure or credentialing requirements for doulas to practice in the United States.<\/p>\n

McKinney said doula support during pregnancy has been linked with significant improvements in maternal and infant health outcomes. Doula assisted mothers were four times less likely to have a baby with low-birth weight, two times less likely to experience a birth complication and significantly more likely to initiate breastfeeding, he said.<\/p>\n

Despite improvements in prenatal care, McKinney said, mortality rates among Black and Indigenous pregnant people and infants are still two to three times higher than those for white pregnant individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoula support is \u2026 a well-researched and evidence-based pathway to improve pregnancy outcomes and experiences,\u201d McKinney said. \u201cIncreasing use of doula services is an important strategy to improve equity in maternal health care outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shanika King, a full spectrum doula and co-founder of A Mother\u2019s Love, testified in support of LB1278. She said connecting birthing individuals with culturally specific doulas could help lessen the impact of systemic racism and improve maternal health outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to a lack of resources and awareness about maternal health in our communities, mothers are dying,\u201d King said. \u201cWhen you have [cultural] knowledge \u2026 it makes a better birthing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryonna Ward also testified in support of the proposal. Ward said her doula was able to provide critical support as she made life or death decisions for herself and her child. Ward said having a doula saved her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Black woman with a deep understanding of the gap in maternal health care and disparities \u2026 I knew that having a doula was deeper than having a birth companion,\u201d Ward said. \u201cIt was about choosing life for me and my unborn child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Executive director of I Be Black Girl Ashlei Spivey spoke in favor of the proposal. A report from the March of Dimes found the U.S. to be the least safe developed country to birth a child, she said, and Nebraska has the 11th highest rate of maternal mortality in the country at 28%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are accessible interventions that allow for people, especially Black people, to not only live through their birthing experiences, but thrive,\u201d Spivey said. \u201cFull spectrum doulas can disrupt [a] family\u2019s experience of harm, mistreatment and adverse health outcomes by acting as an advocate while enhancing feelings of agency, security and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joyce Dykema testified in opposition to LB1278 on behalf of the Doulas of North America board of directors. Although supportive of Medicaid expansion to cover doula services, she said, the board expressed concern that the definitions of a doula and full spectrum doula outlined in the bill do not align with widely recognized definitions of such services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe inaccurate definition of doula in LB1278 is so broad it could include minimally trained support for any number of health-related experiences outside of pregnancy,\u201d Dykema said. \u201cThe likelihood of exploitation due to the ambiguous, misleading and incorrect definitions of doulas is high, putting extra strain on Medicaid dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony Feb. 14 on a bill that would provide Medicaid coverage for doula services in Nebraska.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[262],"class_list":["post-35610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-and-human-services","tag-sen-terrell-mckinney"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35610"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35612,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35610\/revisions\/35612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}