Birth Survey Evaluates Local Facilities

The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) has released thousands of feedback postings on obstetricians, midwives, hospitals, birth centers, and home birth services.  The  program is  “dedicated to improving maternity care for all women. We will do this by 1) creating a higher level of transparency in maternity care so that women will be better able to make informed decisions about where and with whom to birth and 2) providing practitioners and hospitals with information that will aid in evaluating and improving quality of care.”

 The Birth Survey allows individuals to share their own experiences and birth stories, connect with other mothers, hospitals, doctors and midwives in their area, and learn more about the intervention rates of hospitals.

The program’s objectives include:

1. Annually obtain maternity care intervention rates on an institutional level for all fifty states.
2. Collect feedback about women’s birth experiences using an online, ongoing survey, The Birth Survey.
3. Present official hospital intervention rates, results of The Birth Survey, and information about the MFCI in an on-line format.
4. Increase public awareness of differences among maternity care providers and facilities and increase recognition of the MFCI as the gold standard for maternity care. 

“A woman who looks at a list of names from her insurance company is often choosing a provider on nothing but blind luck. Where and with whom to give birth are important health care decisions. Research shows that both provider and location have a significant impact on birth outcomes. CIMS wants expectant parents to ask questions of their providers and facilities, and have access to more information about their local options”, said Elan McAllister, founder of Choices in Childbirth in New York City and co-chair of the The Birth Survey committee.

To volunteer or get more information about the New York City Pilot please e-mail info@choicesinchildbirth.org.

Public Insurance Option Temporarily Set Aside for Employer Plan

Senator Max Baucus of Montana, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, announced at last Friday’s meeting that he was looking into ways to maintain employer self-insurance plans, meaning that a public payer option would be set aside for the moment, though it was “still on the table”.

Baucus said he believed that there should be a national system that allows benefits from differing state plans to transfer across state lines, but stressed that it is not his plan to interfere with employer-based health plans. “The system I envision is where self-insured companies, ERISA companies, can keep their own plans and manage health insurance in the way that they have. We’re not going to change the ways self-insured companies handle health care for employees” said Baucus.

The Senate Finance Committee will meet this Wednesday to discuss Baucus’ proposals.  The Senate has the option of using the budget reconciliation process which would allow for legislation to pass with 51 votes rather than 60.  However, many Democrats, Baucus included, have noted that the reconciliation process would not be needed if they could find a way to all work together.

Read more about this from Kaiser’s Daily Health Policy Report