Kasich administration to invest $350k to better coordinate prenatal care

The Governor’s Office of Health Transformation announced yesterday that it would partner with Nationwide Children’s Hospital's Partners for Kids to replicate in Southeastern Ohio a Mansfield program that has show great strides in improving the health of at-risk mothers and their babies (Source: “CHAP to be used as model,” Mansfield News Journal, Feb. 3, 2012).

Founded in 1999, the Community Health Access Project (CHAP) has achieved a 30-percent reduction in the risk for low-weight births in Richland County. The project uses a Community Pathway Model to improve health and preventative care for high-risk mothers and children in difficult-to-serve areas. It coordinates care for individuals within targeted medical "pathways," such as medication assessment, smoking cessation and pregnancy and postpartum care.

OHT will join with Partners for Kids to use community liaisons to check on at-risk pregnant women to ensure that they are getting the preventive care they need and also help with non-medical needs such as transportation or housing.

In announcing OHT’s $350,000 investment to replicate the program for Medicaid beneficiaries in Appalachia,  Director Greg Moody said the model was selected because it has improved outcomes and reduced costs.

"This initiative fits perfectly with the governor's objectives to improve care coordination for vulnerable Ohioans and to pay for value, not volume, in health care,"  Moody said.