In July and August 2024, the Policy Center held roundtables with over 30 payors and 15 hospitals nationwide to address maternal mental health (MMH) and review our Insurer and Hospital Whole Mom Standards for MMH

The Insurer/Plan Whole Mom Accreditation program was created as a means for health Insurers/Plans to identify meaningful interventions and be recognized for efforts with a public accreditation designation.  

The Hospital Whole Mom™ Standards (best practices for maternal mental health survey) were drafted as a means for individual hospitals to survey themselves, or for a community to survey all of its birth hospitals.

The two insurer/payor roundtables brought together a diverse group of payor leaders, including Quality Improvement Directors, Research and Development Managers, Program Managers, and EPSTD Managers at various state Medicaid agencies —many of whom serve both commercial and Medicaid populations. 

We held a roundtable with hospitals, which our partners from the American Hospital Association also attended. Participants included Medical Directors, Directors of Women’s Health Services, Perinatal social workers, and more.

In addition to discussing core maternal mental health concepts, we reviewed the Hospital Whole Mom Standards and Insurer Whole Mom Standards one by one, providing opportunities for hospitals and insurers to integrate them into their hospital/hospital systems. 

The focus of the discussions was on actionable steps to implement the standards. 

For example, during the payor/insurer roundtables, we discussed how payors can monitor screening rates and incentivize network OB/Gyns and midwives to screen, starting in pregnancy through fee-for-service reimbursement. 

In the hospital roundtable, we discussed, for example, the standards for educating hospital staff about maternal mental health. 

We discussed the Whole Mom standard for hospitals to provide clinicians with a psychiatric consultation line if they operate in a state without one. These consultation programs support ER providers in treating acute mental health conditions, for example. One participant noted that state psychiatric consultation programs can also serve as a hub to refer and connect patients to community-based services and their insurance companies for in-network qualified mental health providers.  Hospital roundtable attendees also discussed the standard to educate hospital staff who interact with patients. It was noted that this standard is difficult for hospitals to implement given nursing shortages, making it difficult for nurses to be pulled away for computer-based training. Instead, they need micro-sized learning moments that could be integrated into the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) bundle implementation and training. 

By discussing the dilemmas and obstacles hospitals and payors were navigating, they were able to hear solutions others have built and offer advice on strategies that the Policy Center can share with others. 

Attendees in both the insurer/payor and hospital roundtables agreed that the time is now to improve maternal mental health outcomes. They expressed interest in joining learning networks to help carve out time to prioritize the implementation of the Whole Mom standards.