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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced changes to address the alarming maternal mortality rate in the U.S., which lags behind comparable nations. Starting in 2026, hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs)—facilities serving underserved rural areas—must comply with new health and safety standards to continue offering obstetric (OB) services. Here are some of the details about the upcoming requirements: ?? OB services must align with national standards, with proper supervision by qualified professionals (e.g., RNs, NPs, CNMs, PAs, MDs). Privileges should be granted to all OB providers and meet hospital requirements. ?? Facilities must maintain basic OB equipment and implement emergency protocols for maternal care, including evidence-based post-care practices. ?? Staff must undergo maternal care training every two years, conduct quality assurance, and report data to Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs). ?? Even facilities without OB services must provide emergency care to OB patients and establish transfer policies. It's shocking that these requirements aren't already in place but the aim is to standardize care and improve outcomes for mothers moving forward. #MaternalHealth #Mothers #MothersMatter #MaternalMortality #HealthCare

This essay in The Atlantic explores the consequences of well-intended philanthropists funding free medical education and how it may actually make health care inequality worse and make the student body wealthier. "In fact, tuition-free status could perversely be making it harder for low-income and underrepresented minority students to go to medical school." What do you think? #Philanthropy #HealthPhilanthropy #MedSchool #FreeTuition

The American Medical Association and twelve other medical associations form the Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) Collaborative, a group dedicated to creating a viable and realistic solution to the mental health crisis. Individuals receiving care from specialists like gynecologists, neurologists, cardiologists, and oncologists can have improved outcomes with integrated models that support mental health. In this example from the AMA, oncologists incorporating BHI, including peer-to-peer support, helped patients navigate the emotional and mental toll of care during treatment. Bottom line: Mental health factors into our overall health and every clinician can serve their patients better if behavioral health support is accessible within their practices. Read more about why integration matters in the link below. #BehavioralHealthIntegration #MentalHealthMatters #Vreds #AMA #BHI #MentalHealth #SpecialityCare Tanya Albert Henry

Racial disparities in maternal and infant health remain deeply concerning, with Black and Indigenous women facing significantly higher mortality rates than White women. Key factors: limited healthcare access, economic barriers, and systemic inequities. Efforts to close these gaps focus on expanding access, improving quality care, and diversifying the healthcare workforce. Latoya Hill,?Alisha Rao,?Samantha Artiga, and?Usha Ranji dive deep into the details in their KFF Health News piece below. #MaternalHealth #HealthEquity #AccesstoCare #HealthcareWorkforce

Today, we are excited to launch Vreds Insights, our monthly newsletter tailored to inspire philanthropists with the latest data, trends, and insights. Our work often uncovers information that can serve as crucial drivers for positive health and social change, helping funders maximize their impact and catalyze meaningful change.?Vreds is dedicated to providing these vital insights into public health, behavioral health, and health innovation. Read, subscribe, and share the newsletter below. #Philanthropy #MentalHealthPhilanthropy #Giving #SocialChange #HealthInnovation #BehavioralHealth #Telehealth #DigitalHealth

As trusted members of the community, Community Health Workers (CHWs) are vital in increasing access to care and reducing disparities in marginalized, underserved, low-income, rural, and Indigenous communities. CHWs are community members who bridge patients with the health care system through their shared experiences, language, and status. Services range from translation to social-emotional support, culturally tailored care, lay counseling, health education, and health screening. Reimbursement is crucial for sustaining CHW programs, and philanthropists have long supported them through grants and continue to do so. While Medicaid 1115 waivers and fee-for-service or per-member-per-month models offer some support, they don't account for significant overhead costs like transportation and equipment. A recent article in the Journal of Community Health shows that current Medicaid funding isn't enough to keep CHW programs financially stable. More consideration is needed to ensure CHWs can continue their important work in reducing health disparities and get fair compensation. As this study demonstrates, philanthropic support will continue to be necessary. Read the article by Sanjay Basu, Sadiq Y. Patel, Kiiera Robinson, Ed.D, MPH, MA and Aaron Baum at the link below. #CommunityHealth #HealthcareWorkers #HealthWorkers #Workforce #HealthcareWorkforce

Philanthropists have long been invested in local schools. Increasingly, they are targeting mental health in innovative ways—from broad-scale prevention, to adding social workers and community health workers to the school team, to rehab high schools and school-based tele-behavioral health. Schools can support student’s mental health and wellbeing needs?through the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework. It's needed--the newly published data from the CDC’s?Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report (2023)?shows: ?40% of high school students complain of ongoing poor mental health ? Feelings of sadness and hopelessness are worse for female students (53%) and LGBTQ+ students (65%) ? 20% of all students seriously considered suicide, including 27% of female students and an alarming 41% of LGBTQ+ students ? 9% of high school students attempted suicide in the last year. ? See the link in the comments below. #YouthMentalHealth #Philanthropy #MentalHealthPhilanthropy Joyce Sebian, Olga Acosta Price, Sharon Hoover, Dr. Gary Blau, Anne De Biasi

It’s #WorldMentalHealthDay and this year the theme is "Mental Health At Work." An estimated 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety globally. This results in a loss of $1 trillion USD in productivity per year alone. An estimated 15% of working adults have a mental health condition, and workplaces need to encourage, promote, and protect workers, offering a safe, healthy, and supportive environment. Meaningful employment supports better mental health outcomes. Governments, employers, and all stakeholders should work to enhance mental well-being in the workplace for everyone—not just those with mental health conditions. This approach benefits individuals, organizations, and the broader economy. The World Health Organization’s Guidelines on Mental Health at Work offer evidence-based recommendations to promote mental well-being, prevent mental health conditions, and support individuals with mental health conditions to participate and thrive in the workplace. Read the guidelines at the link in the comments below. #MentalHealth #Employers #WorkPlaceWellBeing

Solving the nation’s mental health crisis requires making progress on multiple fronts, and legal protections – which vary from state to state – are key among them. These protections help ensure that the 164 million Americans who are covered by employer-based insurance plans have true access to effective care, and they also affect the willingness of mental health professionals to participate in care networks. ? This recent review identifies states with laws: defining clinical standards or criteria for coverage decisions on mental health care; regulating how insurers conduct reviews of behavioral health; and requiring insurers to report how much access they provide to mental health care, including in some cases measures of utilization, spending, and outcomes. ? As the piece notes, states are laboratories for innovation, providing state and federal policymakers have a wide range of approaches to learn from and build on.?Of course, passing a law is never enough: laws need to be known, understood, followed, and—when needed—enforced. And when they are not working as intended or are no longer needed, they should be adapted or dropped. This profile of pioneering states working to improve mental health care access is a great place to start. Read the review from ProPublica by Annie W. and Maya Miller in comments below. #MentalHealth #MentalIllnessAwarenessWeek #MentalHealthMatters

Homicide is the leading cause of death for pregnant and post-partum women in the US. Alarmingly, women are more likely to be murdered than to die from obstetric causes such as bleeding, sepsis, and hypertension. Yet this horrifying statistic is not included as a measure of maternal mortality (in which the US consistently lags behind other comparable countries), as pointed out by a recent editorial in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology by Melissa Bright, PhD, Alyssa Amendola MPH, MID Amendola, and Dikea Roussos-Ross, MD. The authors present that maternal homicides should be reviewed with the same “due diligence” as obstetrical medical causes of maternal death—to understand how and whether lives can be saved. Considering that 1 in 3 women experience some form of intimate partner violence; could recognition of this disturbing reality lead to better screening, awareness, and prevention? Read the article at the link in the comments below. #MaternalHealth #MaternalMentalHealth