Humana Bundled Payment Model Seeks to Improve US Maternity Care

Maternity care in the United States has a lot of room for improvement. Since 1987, pregnancy-related deaths have been steadily increasing, from 7.2 deaths per 100,000 live births to 17.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2013 (the last year of available data), according to data from the CDC. One way of improving maternity care may be new payment models that incentivize quality care.

Humana has designed a new value-based care maternity bundled payment model to improve quality, outcomes, and cost across the entire perinatal episode of care for commercial group members with low- to moderate-risk pregnancies. The insurer is partnering with obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN) practices across the country to launch the national payment model.

Humana already has a bundled payment for joint replacement that is offered at approximately 40 orthopedic groups in 13 states.

“Because quality maternity care is important for many of our members and a significant focus of specialty care services in our country, we’re very pleased to launch Humana’s newest specialty-care bundled payment model,” Caraline Coats, vice president of Humana’s Provider Development Center of Excellence, said in a statement. “Humana is dedicated to working with OB-GYNs across the country to provide a better patient experience and improve patient outcomes, while also tackling the cost challenges inherent in perinatal care.”

Click to continue reading on The American Journal of Managed Care.