The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published a data brief titled “Prematurity and severe maternal morbidity among Medicaid- and CHIP-covered live births in 2021.”
The data shows Medicaid and CHIP enrollees that were ages 15-49 during the time of observation. The brief compares data from 2019 and 2020 to 2021. According to a CMS release, the goal of the brief is to “measure disparities in health outcomes and access to care and to make focused, evidence-based investments to improve health equity for individuals covered by Medicaid and CHIP.”
According to the data, preterm births increased from 2019 to 2021. “The percentage of live births that were preterm increased from 10.5 to 10.8 percent and SMM rates increased from 209.6 to 252.7 per 10,000 Medicaid- and CHIP-covered live births among states included in the analysis.” CMS suspects the pandemic may have impacted these trends.
The report also showed that “non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) enrollees had the highest rates of both preterm birth and SMM compared to other racial and ethnic groups.”
Additionally, “Enrollees who were eligible for Medicaid based on disability had over one and a half times the percentage of preterm births and nearly double the rate of SMM than that of enrollees in other eligibility categories.”
