Power of Connection: Creating Incentives for Evidence-Based Group Prenatal Care

Full Description: The mission of Centering Healthcare Institute is to improve health, transform care and disrupt inequitable systems through the Centering group model.

The CenteringPregnancy™ group prenatal care model is a proven approach for improving maternal health outcomes and addressing racial disparities. In over 150 published studies and peer-reviewed articles, CenteringPregnancy has been proven to lower the risk of preterm birth, close the disparity gap in preterm birth between Black and white women, and improve both visit attendance and patient satisfaction. Participants report readiness for birth and infant care, higher breastfeeding rates and greater confidence. The Centering Healthcare Institute (CHI) supports the implementation of CenteringPregnancy through a standardized curriculum, rigorous training, robust technical assistance, and accreditation leading to high fidelity to the model. The CenteringPregnancy model is used in 600 locations across the country serving more than 50,000 families.

For the 45 minutes session, we aim to provide a detailed overview of the CenteringPregnancy® model and its core components, including its creation as a model in the mid-90’s, the provider cohorts that facilitate the prenatal groups, number and locations of sites, demographics on CenteringPregnancy patients, outcomes of this evidence-based model, and adaptations for CV19 including considerations for virtual group prenatal care. Explicit objectives in this overview include showing how the model has been at the forefront of serving birthing people and building community at the patient-to-patient and patient-to-provider levels for over twenty-five years. Not only have patients been highly satisfied with the model, but providers have also found their work more rewarding in contrast to the provision of traditional individual prenatal care.

After the foundation is established, we aim to provide detailed information on enhanced payment for evidence-based group prenatal care, including highlighting which states currently provide this alongside an explanation of how those states established their enhanced payment. Information on cost savings paired with information on the growing area of value-based payment reforms in the maternal and child health space will be provided. The State Policy Playbook: Group Prenatal Care is a tool that will be shared at no-cost with participants. A detailed legislative and regulatory update on group prenatal care at both the state and federal level will round out this section. Policymakers, payers, and providers will learn about how enhanced payment can be created and implemented to incentivize utilization of the CenteringPregnancy model and how doing so increases access to quality prenatal care, addresses maternal and child health inequities, and saves precious reinvestment dollars.

Abbreviated Description: The mission of Centering Healthcare Institute is to improve health, transform care and disrupt inequitable systems through the Centering group model. Join to learn about CenteringPregnancy™ , a tried-and-true evidence-based model of prenatal care that since its inception in the 90’s has proven to close the disparity gap in preterm birth between Black and white women, increase rates of breastfeeding, improve visit attendance, and increase patient satisfaction. Beyond learning about the model, this workshop will provide policymakers, payers, and providers with the tools necessary to support an enhanced payment for CenteringPregnancy, thereby increasing access to quality prenatal care, meaningfully addressing maternal and child health inequities, and saving precious reinvestment dollars.