Northern Nevada HOPES received a major investment from UnitedHealthcare to develop the program.
The effort is being funded by a $708,000 donation from UnitedHealthcare Health Plan of Nevada Medicaid.
The goal is to improve health outcomes for both mothers and babies by expanding access to prenatal, postpartum, behavioral health, and pediatric care.
The program offers support to both the mother and baby throughout the process, said Dr. Chelsea Travers, a family physician with HOPES.
“From when the patient finds out they're pregnant all the way through postpartum, and then after they deliver the baby, we'll see them as a couplet, so we'll see them as parent and baby together in the same appointment,” Travers said.
It's also going to be addressing addiction. “The participants in our program will have a history of substance use disorder, focusing a lot on opioid use disorder,” she said.
This program aims to address conditions directly through early intervention and whole-person care. In particular, conditions such as gestational diabetes, preterm birth and preeclampsia.
Patients need to have some type of insurance to be seen for this specific program, said Teresita Espana, prenatal care coordinator at HOPES.
“Or [they should] be able to get insurance, but that doesn't mean that when they come and they don't have it, we're just gonna say no we can't see you. We definitely want to provide the support of, even if we're not the right place for you, let's try to find a place that is good for you to go and that way they're not having to navigate everything all by themselves regardless if they're a patient or not,” Espana said.
The Maternal Health Program at Northern Nevada HOPES launches this July.
