Bipartisan Bill in Congress Would Send More OB-GYNs to Underserved Rural Areas

The Improving Access to Maternity Care Act would identify which areas of the country have maternity care shortages and help send OB-GYNs to those underserved areas.

The Improving Access to Maternity Care Act would identify which areas of the country have maternity care shortages and help send OB-GYNs to those underserved areas. Shutterstock

A new bipartisan bill introduced in Congress last week aims to improve access to maternity care in rural and underserved areas.

The Improving Access to Maternity Care Act, introduced by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) in the Senate and by Reps. Michael Burgess (R-TX) and Lois Capps (D-CA) in the House, would identify which areas of the country have maternity care shortages and help send OB-GYNs to those underserved areas.

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, we’ve seen historic gains when it comes to providing maternity care coverage for women and families across America,” Baldwin said in a statement. “Unfortunately, rural and underserved communities are still facing a shortage of qualified, maternity care professionals and services.”

Every year, one million babies are born to mothers who didn’t receive adequate prenatal care, which can lead to low birth weight and other health risks.

More than half of women in rural communities live more than 30 minutes from a hospital with perinatal services. Long commutes like that can be burdensome for regular checkups and dangerous during labor, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which endorsed the legislation.

The new bill would tweak a government program to help serve more of these women.

The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) already offers doctors scholarships and loan repayments in exchange for serving two-to-four years in areas with provider shortages. But right now the program doesn’t include a category for maternity care, and it funnels OG-GYNs into primary care sites that may not also have a maternity care deficit.

The proposed legislation would create a new designation for NHSC to identify areas with maternity health provider shortages, and then send specialists to those areas.