Eytons' Earth: Natural & Alternative Medicine

[silver_lover]

Most direct entry midwives, licensed or not, have great difficulty
getting or affording medical malpractice insurance, and lack of such
insurance continues to be an obstacle for midwives to be reimbursed for
births by Medicaid and other health insurance entities.

A breakthrough for New Mexico midwives was recently announced, allowing
Medicaid to pay uninsured midwives in New Mexico! An article about this
was recently published in the New Mexico Business Weekly - May 19, 2006
and can be read on-line at:

"http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2006/05/22/story
7.html?surround=etf"http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stori
es/2006/05/22/story7.html?surround=etf

Here are some highlights from that article:

A new agreement between the New Mexico Human Services Department,
managed care organizations and the state's midwives means that midwives
will once again be paid for delivering babies for Medicaid-eligible
women outside of hospitals without holding medical malpractice
insurance.

… New Mexico's 169 midwives outnumber the state's 154 practicing
obstetrician gynecologists, and in 15 counties there are no practicing
OB-GYNs, meaning that women in those counties are often relying on
general practice doctors or midwives for prenatal care.

Midwives have been facing increasing difficulty in getting paid for
treatment of Medicaid-eligible women since 1997, when New Mexico's
Medicaid program was privatized and began to be operated by the state's
managed care organizations. The state requires the MCOs that contract
for Medicaid services to have medical malpractice insurance, and MCOs in
turn require the same of all providers who treat their Medicaid
patients. …

…. Medicaid-eligible women make up 65 percent of the practices of
certified nurse midwives, who deliver babies both in homes and in
hospitals, and a high percentage of the practices of direct-entry
midwives, whose practices deal exclusively with home birth. …

Under the new Birthing Options Program, Larry Heyeck, deputy director of
the medical assistance division of HSD, says Medicaid-eligible women who
elect to use the services of a midwife for their birth will sign a form
stating that they are aware that the midwife does not have malpractice
insurance. In order to be a Medicaid provider, a midwife must provide
documentation that they are unable to procure medical malpractice
insurance and that they do not have a history of past malpractice claims
against them. By signing the form, patients are waiving their rights to
pursue legal action against the state, the MCO managing their Medicaid
care, or the midwife.

“… this program will allow any mom who decides to enroll to have her
baby at home despite her attending midwife's lack of insurance
coverage."

Congratulations to the New Mexico midwives!!! While each state
administers its own Medicaid program in its own way, we can hope that
this New Mexico agreement might serve as a model for other states where
lack of malpractice insurance is an obstacle for both midwives and
Medicaid-eligible women who want a midwife and even a home birth!

Sincerely,
Susan Hodges, “gatekeeper”
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Posted courtesy of Alisa at http://www.birth-tub-rentals.com