Newhouse Helps Reintroduce Rural MOMS Act

4th District Representative Dan Newhouse was part of a group of U.S. House members to reintroduce the Rural Maternal and Obstetric Modernization of Services Act, or Rural MOMS Act.

Newhouse said the legislation aims to expand access to healthcare services for pregnant woman and new mothers in remote areas.

"That's what we're trying to address here. To improve that access." Newhouse said, "We want to coordinate and streamline some of the collection of data so we can better understand where the needs are and help improve innovation in these efforts."

The bill would improve data reporting and research regarding rural pregnancy, fund expanded care through grants and launch a rural maternal and obstetric care training demonstration.

The Rural MOMS Act would:

• Create Rural Maternal and Obstetric Care Data improvements by requiring the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to coordinate efforts around maternal mortality and morbidity, to report on women’s health conditions according to sociocultural and geographic contexts, and to emphasize research on pregnancy-related deaths.
• Award Rural Obstetric Network Grants to assist in the creation of regional innovation networks to address maternal mortality morbidity rates as well as birth outcomes.
• Expand Existing Federal Telehealth Grant Programs to include birth and postnatal services as part of telehealth networks, and utilize federal funding for the cost of ultrasound machines, fetal monitoring equipment, and other pregnancy-related technology by expanding the Federal Telehealth Grant Programs.
• Launch a Rural Maternal and Obstetric Care Training Demonstration for family medicine physicians, obstetricians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, midwives, doulas, and other medical professionals to provide maternal care services in rural community-based settings.
• Report on Maternal Care in Rural Areas to identify the locations of gaps in maternity care, recommendations to standardize data collection on maternal mortality and morbidity, and activities to improve maternal care in rural areas.

The full legislation can be found here.