WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Pension, and Labor Committee, and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) recently introduced legislation to address the rising trend of labor and delivery unit closures in rural and underserved areas. These closures, primarily in rural hospitals and hospitals that provide care in underserved areas, have led to a scarcity of critical obstetric care in these communities and have significant consequences for expectant parents, newborns, and families.
“All families deserve access to safe, quality maternal care, regardless of where they call home,” said Senator Hassan. “The alarming trend of maternity ward closures in rural New Hampshire and rural America puts mothers and babies at risk by forcing them to travel hours for basic care. Right now, my Republican colleagues are pushing forward a bill to give corporate special interests and billionaires a tax break paid for by taking health coverage away from millions of people – which will also harm rural hospitals’ ability to keep their doors open as patients lose access to care. I urge my colleagues to instead support commonsense legislation to help give rural hospitals the resources that they need to support labor and delivery units, and to help ensure that families in our rural communities can access the life-saving care they deserve close to home.”
Between 2012 and 2022, approximately one-quarter of all rural hospitals stopped providing obstetrics services, impacting 267 communities nationally. This trend of closures is caused by several overlapping challenges, including the high fixed operating costs of these units, low volumes of births, and difficulties in attracting and retaining OB-trained clinical staff, all of which are made worse by inadequate reimbursement for labor and delivery services.
Senator Hassan’s legislation, titled the Keep Obstetrics Local Act (KOLA), would increase Medicaid payment rates for labor and delivery services for eligible rural and high-need urban hospitals, provide “standby” payments to cover the costs of staffing and maintaining an obstetrics unit as well as payment adjustments for labor and delivery services at hospitals with low birth volumes and require all states to provide postpartum coverage for women in Medicaid for 12 months, among other steps. The proposal makes sure that hospitals are required to use these additional resources to invest in the maternal healthcare needs of the local communities they serve.
“As a partner of North Country Healthcare, the Valley Birthplace at AVH fully supports this proposed legislation to best ensure the health and well-being of mothers in Coos County,” said Michael Peterson, FACHE, President and Chief Executive Officer, Androscoggin Valley Hospital. “As the only labor/delivery unit in Northern New Hampshire, we regularly see first-hand how critical it is that maternal health not be compromised. Equally important is making sure that such a vital service can continue to be funded in an environment that continues to be economically-challenged.”
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