Community of Learning: Perinatal Mental Health Conditions in the Outpatient Setting
The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health, in collaboration with JSI, invites Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) entities, including Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs), to participate in a six-month Community of Learning focused on implementing the AIM Perinatal Mental Health Conditions (PMHC) Patient Safety Bundle in outpatient settings.
Over the course of six sessions, participants will receive knowledge and tools to develop their own perinatal mental health quality improvement (QI) activities to improve maternal mental health outcomes, including an understanding of HEDIS outpatient perinatal depression performance measures, the unbundling of maternity care, and potential partnership with insurers and Medicaid managed care. Each 1-hour CoL session will be followed by an optional 30-minute office hour with the PCMMH and AIM TA Center staff.
Some of What You Will Learn
The Maternal Mental Health Crisis and Why Pregnancy is the Intervention Window
This session will provide an overview of the onset and range of maternal mental health conditions and explore the link between untreated maternal mental health disorders and long-term maternal and infant health outcomes. The session will identify barriers in the national landscape of maternal mental health and address policy and practice opportunities.
Implementing the AIM PMHC Bundle in Outpatient Obstetric Clinics
This session will focus on the practical implementation of the AIM Perinatal Mental Health Conditions Patient Safety Bundle within outpatient obstetric clinics, including validated screening tools, referral network development, telepsychiatry consultation, and safety planning. Participants will examine common barriers faced by obstetric clinics and review scalable approaches to integrating behavioral health services across diverse care settings.
Centering Families and Communities: The Mother-Infant Dyad
This session will explore community-based settings and services such as the comprehensive Maternity Care Center (cMCC) framework being adopted by Federally Qualified Health Care Centers and the role of the non-clinical workforce, including certified peer support specialists, community health workers, and doulas. Participants will also learn about the benefits of addressing maternal and infant well-being together through dyadic care support groups that build confidence and skills and support mother-baby resilience.
Payment Reform and Partnering with Health Plans
This session examines emerging opportunities created by the transition away from bundled maternity payments and the implementation of new CPT maternity care codes beginning in 2027. Participants will explore how payment reform can strengthen maternal mental health screening, treatment, and follow-up, as well as opportunities for collaboration with Medicaid managed care organizations and commercial health plans.
Quality Measurement, HEDIS, and Medicaid Accountability
Measurement drives improvement. Participants will review current HEDIS prenatal and postpartum depression screening measures, state performance variation, and opportunities to strengthen data collection and reporting. Participants will gain practical insight into leveraging screening, claims, and quality dashboard data to support continuous quality improvement initiatives.
State Policy, Rural Access, and Scaling Change
The final session will focus on translating improvement efforts into sustainable systems change. The session will highlight policy strategies that have successfully expanded maternal mental health services, including in rural and underserved communities. The session concludes with a capstone planning activity in which participants will use the 2026 maternal mental health state report cards, county-level risk maps, claims and HEDIS data, and AIM assessments to identify actionable clinical and policy strategies for implementation in their own states and organizations.
Requirements: The Community of Learning is designed for entities participating in the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM), including state hospital associations, state health departments, or state perinatal quality collaboratives
Session Dates:
August 11, 2026 at 2pm ET
September 8, 2026 at 2pm ET
October 13, 2026 at 2pm ET
November 10, 2026 at 2pm ET
December 8, 2026 at 2pm ET
January 12, 2027 at 2pm ET
Registration: Complete this application form.