LITTLE ROCK – Earlier this year the legislature enacted broad measures to improve maternal health care in Arkansas, and progress is already being made.
Act 140 of 2025, also known as the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act, makes maternal care more available for women of all ages and socio-economic categories.
Act 140 has an important provision known as “presumptive eligibility,” which means that whenever a woman is pregnant she automatically becomes eligible for Medicaid. That provision provides immediate prenatal care for women during an important period of their pregnancy, especially considering that it takes about 45 days for an ordinary Medicaid application to be processed.
The provision took effect on June 1 and since then more than 2,230 women have been classified as presumable eligible for Medicaid.
Another provision in Act 140 is called “global unbundling.” It reverses a Medicaid regulation that reimbursed physicians, clinics, hospitals and other medical providers under a so-called “global payment” system. The state Medicaid program would reimburse providers with a large check for a bundle of services provided.
Now, thanks to Act 140, Medicaid reimburses physicians with separate payments for prenatal care, postnatal visits and other services related to the healthy delivery of newborn babies. Pregnant women are covered for up to 14 prenatal and postnatal visits.
Global unbundling began July1, according to a report by the state Human Services Department presented to the Joint Senate and House Committees on Public Health.
Another change increases reimbursements by 70 percent to physicians who deliver babies and provide prenatal and postnatal care.
The increase is significant, considering that in some years, almost half of the births in Arkansas are covered by Medicaid. The rule change means that Arkansas Medicaid will spend an additional $38 million on maternal health care.
Act 140 will allow midwives, doulas and community health workers to be reimbursed by Medicaid, but those changes will not take effect until 2027.
Elected officials knew that changes were necessary, because Arkansas was consistently near the bottom in numerous rankings of maternal health and infant mortality.
It was proposed by the governor and originally introduced as Senate Bill 213. Its two Senate co-sponsors were the chair of the Senate Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor and the chair of the Senate Rules Committee. The governor and both Senate co-sponsors are women, although three of the five House co-sponsors are men.
Arkansas is also improving maternal health care through a program called the Maternal Life360 Home Program, in which the state contracts with hospitals to care for pregnant women with high medical risks. So far, four hospitals have signed up.
Since the first of August 114 women have received maternal health services through the Maternal Life360 program.
Arkansas is promoting a smart phone app, called Pregnancy +, for expectant mothers. It’s free and it has links to local health care sources, hundreds of articles with advice on motherhood and tools for keeping track of doctor appointments.
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