State Extends Postpartum Medicaid Coverage

New mothers in Michigan will be eligible for 12 months of Medicaid coverage under a plan approved recently by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The current postpartum coverage period had been limited to 60 days.

The extension will include both medical and dental services. Governor Gretchen Whitmer says it will affect around 35,000 pregnant and postpartum mothers each year, at an annual cost of $20 million.

In January of 2018, Michigan’s Maternal Mortality Surveillance Committee found that approximately half of maternal deaths in Michigan were preventable.