Sen. DiDomenico proud of passage of comprehensive maternal health bill

Recently, Governor Maura Healey signed into law a comprehensive maternal health bill that creates a state licensure pathway for midwives and lactation consultants, encourages the creation of more freestanding birth centers, establishes a grant program to address maternal mental health and substance use disorder and expands the statewide universal postpartum home visiting program. State Senator Sal DiDomenico proudly supported this legislation, which also mandates that insurers provide coverage for postpartum depression and major depressive disorder screenings for perinatal individuals.

“My colleagues and I took decisive action last month to improve and expand maternal health care options for people throughout Massachusetts,” said Senator DiDomenico. “These changes will narrow racial inequities and improve health care outcomes for parents across the Commonwealth. This will go a long way towards our overall goal of making our state more welcoming and inclusive of families of all backgrounds and income levels. I want to thank Governor Healey, Senate President Spilka, Senator Friedman and Representative Decker for their leadership on these urgent issues.”

The legislation creates a state license that certified professional midwives must receive in order to practice midwifery, and it requires certain insurance providers, such as MassHealth, to cover doula and midwifery services, including prenatal care, childbirth and postpartum care. The new law creates the Board of Registration in Midwifery within the Department of Public Health (DPH) to license and provide oversight of licensed certified professional midwives. Licensed certified professional midwives would be required to coordinate emergency care if needed and would also be able to issue prescriptions for certain drugs, under regulations to be promulgated by the Board and DPH. This language also ensures equitable reimbursement of certified nurse midwives by requiring that they receive payment rates equal to those for the same services performed by a physician under MassHealth.

To encourage the creation of more freestanding birth centers, which operate independent from hospital systems, the law requires DPH to promulgate updated regulations governing the licensure of freestanding birth centers to ensure safe, equitable and accessible birth options.

The legislation also requires that MassHealth cover noninvasive prenatal screenings to detect whether a pregnancy is at increased risk for chromosomal abnormalities for all pregnant patients regardless of age, baseline risk or family history. The law requires health insurers to provide coverage for medically necessary pasteurized donor human milk and products derived from it, serving as a critical source of nutrition for the growth and development of babies, particularly for vulnerable premature infants. To better support new mothers in their feeding journeys, the law also authorizes the Board of Allied Health Professionals to license lactation consultants to ensure their services are eligible for reimbursement through the patient’s insurance.

The legislation provides critical support for birthing people and their families during the postpartum period, including requiring DPH to conduct a public awareness campaign about perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and to develop and maintain a digital resource center that will be available to the public. It also requires that perinatal individuals be offered a screening for postpartum depression and major depressive disorder, and that those services be covered by health insurance plans. To better address barriers in access to care and reduce racial inequities in maternal health, the law expands the universal postpartum home visiting program administered by DPH and provides coverage for the program’s services.

Additionally, the law requires DPH to develop and disseminate public information about pregnancy loss to the public and perinatal health care workers to prioritize the physical and mental health care of patients affected. It also requires DPH to establish a program to conduct fetal and infant mortality reviews to identify social, economic and systems level factors associated with fetal and infant deaths and inform public health policy programs. The legislation also includes a provision that will allow Massachusetts residents to use earned paid sick time in the event of a pregnancy loss.

The law ensures that the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee will have access to essential records required to conduct thorough and timely reviews of maternal deaths and pregnancy complications. This will enable the Committee to formulate comprehensive recommendations to improve maternal outcomes and prevent mortality. The law’s language also establishes a grant program under the Executive Office of Health and Human Services aimed at addressing maternal mental health. This program will support the establishment or expansion of initiatives serving perinatal individuals, particularly those in underserved populations, to improve mental health, behavioral health and substance use disorder.

The law establishes a nine-member task force to study the current availability of, and access to, maternal health services and care, as well as essential service closures of inpatient maternity units and acute-level birthing centers. The task force will identify methods of increasing financial investment in, and patient access to, maternal health care in the Commonwealth.