The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved Michigan’s request to expand Medicaid coverage for 12-months postpartum. This also includes Maternity Outpatient Medical Services (MOMS) beneficiaries.
Why is this extended post-partum coverage important?
1. Pregnant women and new mothers can now access pregnancy related healthcare for a full year. Previously, pregnancy related Medicaid coverage was only for 60 days after the end of pregnancy.
2. The full 12-months post-partum Medicaid benefit will continue even when the pregnancy ends, regardless of the reason and includes live birth, still birth or miscarriage, for example.
3. Postpartum women can continue to seek and receive ongoing mental health support for perinatal depression or chronic conditions beyond 6-8 weeks postpartum.
4. Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC), like the Intrauterine device (IUD), or contraceptive implants, which typically cannot be inserted until after 3 months postpartum, are now an option for family planning.
5. If you have active Medicaid, make sure you report your pregnancy and provide a pregnancy verification to your Medicaid case specialist, and the year of post-partum coverage will automatically be added to your coverage.
Medicaid eligibility is based on household income and family size. A current pregnancy counts as an additional family member and Medicaid income cutoffs for pregnant women and infants are higher–much higher–than for women who are not pregnant. (They jump from 138% of the poverty level to 200% of the poverty level.) So if you don’t have Medicaid, and/or you have a private/employer insurance plan that will still leave you with some costs, it is worth seeing if you will qualify for Medicaid as secondary insurance. Medicaid as secondary insurance will pick up what your private insurance won’t cover, but only if you qualify.
For a free pregnancy test, please visit the Washtenaw County Health Department.
If you need to apply for Medicaid, the Washtenaw Health Plan can help!
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