Venture capital firms making bets on maternal health
By Amina Niasse
NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) -After working as a doula for 10 years, Kortny Feutardo took her first Maryland Medicaid patient in January, providing the new mom with care coordination and counseling.
Feutardo is one of many providers benefiting from growing investment in the maternal and neonatal health sector.After not receiving timely payments from her patient's managed care organization, she began working with Mae, a venture capital-backed company that pairs pregnant women with doulas through Medicaid partnerships and handles payment.
With a U.S. maternal mortality crisis underway, government health plans for low-income Americans in the past few years have increased coverage of services shown to improve the health of mothers and babies.
And now, venture capital firms, including Khosla Ventures and Rock Health, are bolstering investment into maternal health companies and technology, as they anticipate sector growth and bet payment rates from both Medicaid and commercial insurance will accelerate.
Early maternal healthcare investments in businesses like Mae and others ranging from clinics to specialists in fertility and nutrition counseling totaled $306.5 million in 2023, a 700% increase from $38.1 million in 2018, according to data that research firm Pitchbook prepared for Reuters.
SAVING LIVES
Midwife and doula-led births often provide perinatal care coordination, post-partum and pre-natal counseling, lactation counseling, behavioral health screenings and support for moms quitting smoking. Midwives are clinical providers certified to provide obstetric and gynecological care. While doulas don't provide clinical services, they assist patients through educational and emotional support.
Increasing insurance coverage and integration of doulas and midwives by healthcare plans, along with promising financial exits are encouraging more investment. Alice Zheng, a partner at VC firm RH Capital, pointed to Amazon's recent acquisition of membership-based clinic One Medical as a sign of potential for maternal health clinics.
"There have been some great exits in clinical care recently," said Zheng, whose firm invested in maternity-clinic Millie.
Millie Clinic, based in Berkeley, California closed its very first round of funding in 2022 with $4 million, led by BBG Ventures, which invests in female and diverse-led companies, and TMV.
At Khosla Ventures, investors target maternal health technologies, a strategy they say has advantages over clinical care companies.The firm, with assets of $17 billion, has invested in Mirvie, which uses RNA testing to predict pregnancy complications and preterm infant incubator Vitara.
"Saving the lives of mothers and babies is in everyone's interest, so for breakthrough innovations like Mirvie and Vitara, there is a lot of space to obtain reimbursement," said Alex Morgan, a partner at Khosla Ventures.
U.S. maternal mortality rates are far worse than any other high-income nation and for Black women, those rates are more than twice as high, according to a 2024 Commonwealth Fund report.
Midwife-led care has been shown to help improve health outcomes for Black women and their babies. A U.S. government analysis of birth center outcomes between 2013 to 2017 found that Black women who gave birth in midwife-led birthing centers had lower rates of pre-term and low-weight births.
In 2020, healthcare VC firm Rock Health Capital invested in Oula, which operates two maternity centers in New York that offer patients both midwifery-led care and obstetrics in two locations. Oula closed its second round of funding in February with $28 million and is opening a third Manhattan clinic by September.
Bill Evans, founder of Rock Health Capital, said he was driven to invest in Oula by its health outcomes. Oula, when compared with the National Center for Health Statistics' New York City natality data had a 61% lower preterm birth rate across 1,500 births since 2021, the company said.
Millie's cohort of 150 births experienced a 71.3% lower preterm birth rate than the national rate calculated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. And for Black mothers, who are more likely to deliver their babies prematurely, the preterm birth rate was 60.2% lower, the company said.
REIMBURSEMENT ISSUES
Medicaid coverage for doula services is not currently a federal requirement, but states can choose to cover doulas within their Medicaid plans, said Amy Chen at the National Health Law Program. Medicaid plans covered 41% of U.S. births in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokesperson said that the agency encourages states to provide coverage.
Fifteen states and Washington D.C. are reimbursing doulas, including three that added it to Medicaid just this year, according to the National Health Law Program.
Commercial insurance mandates are further behind with only Rhode Island requiring it.
The three largest U.S. managed care companies Cigna CI.N, CVS's CVS.N Aetna and UnitedHealth UNH.N leave the decision to cover doulas to health plan sponsors like employers or Medicaid, according to their websites. CVS and UnitedHealth confirmed their policies. Cigna did not respond to a request for comment.
As doula and midwifery companies try to expand nationally, some grapple with insufficient reimbursement.
"We have to solve for inadequate reimbursement rates, viable health system partners, and availability of clinical talent in those markets," said Anu Sharma, chief executive officer at Millie.
The reimbursement landscape makes venture funding a necessity as companies look to grow.
Venture funding can help sustain innovation as Medicaid-focused businesses face reimbursement limitations, said Maya Hardigan, founder and CEO of Mae.
Even in New York, which pays midwives the highest rate of reimbursement in the country - 95% of an obstetrician's fee - and up to $1,440, payment is not enough, companies said.
Doula Feutardo has been glad to help a more diverse group in Medicaid, but said that reimbursement has been an issue.
Feutardo who travels across Washington, Maryland, and Virginia for clients, says government-sponsored reimbursement could be raised to cover travel, food and housing costs.She has now lowered private fees to match her Maryland Medicaid rate of $1,300 per delivery.
"I give equal love to moms," she said.
July 2024 Doula coverage across the U.S. https://www.reuters.com/graphics/HEALTH-INSURANCE/MATERNALHEALTH/jnvwaojmjvw/index.html
Reporting by Amina Niasse; editing by Caroline Humer and Anna Driver
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تازہ ترين خبريں
دستبرداری: XM Group کے ادارے ہماری آن لائن تجارت کی سہولت تک صرف عملدرآمد کی خدمت اور رسائی مہیا کرتے ہیں، کسی شخص کو ویب سائٹ پر یا اس کے ذریعے دستیاب کانٹینٹ کو دیکھنے اور/یا استعمال کرنے کی اجازت دیتا ہے، اس پر تبدیل یا توسیع کا ارادہ نہیں ہے ، اور نہ ہی یہ تبدیل ہوتا ہے یا اس پر وسعت کریں۔ اس طرح کی رسائی اور استعمال ہمیشہ مشروط ہوتا ہے: (i) شرائط و ضوابط؛ (ii) خطرہ انتباہات؛ اور (iii) مکمل دستبرداری۔ لہذا اس طرح کے مواد کو عام معلومات سے زیادہ کے طور پر فراہم کیا جاتا ہے۔ خاص طور پر، براہ کرم آگاہ رہیں کہ ہماری آن لائن تجارت کی سہولت کے مندرجات نہ تو کوئی درخواست ہے، اور نہ ہی فنانشل مارکیٹ میں کوئی لین دین داخل کرنے کی پیش کش ہے۔ کسی بھی فنانشل مارکیٹ میں تجارت میں آپ کے سرمائے کے لئے ایک خاص سطح کا خطرہ ہوتا ہے۔
ہماری آن لائن تجارتی سہولت پر شائع ہونے والے تمام مٹیریل کا مقصد صرف تعلیمی/معلوماتی مقاصد کے لئے ہے، اور اس میں شامل نہیں ہے — اور نہ ہی اسے فنانشل، سرمایہ کاری ٹیکس یا تجارتی مشورے اور سفارشات؛ یا ہماری تجارتی قیمتوں کا ریکارڈ؛ یا کسی بھی فنانشل انسٹرومنٹ میں لین دین کی پیشکش؛ یا اسکے لئے مانگ؛ یا غیر متنازعہ مالی تشہیرات پر مشتمل سمجھا جانا چاہئے۔
کوئی تھرڈ پارٹی کانٹینٹ، نیز XM کے ذریعہ تیار کردہ کانٹینٹ، جیسے: راۓ، خبریں، تحقیق، تجزیہ، قیمتیں اور دیگر معلومات یا اس ویب سائٹ پر مشتمل تھرڈ پارٹی کے سائٹس کے لنکس کو "جیسے ہے" کی بنیاد پر فراہم کیا جاتا ہے، عام مارکیٹ کی تفسیر کے طور پر، اور سرمایہ کاری کے مشورے کو تشکیل نہ دیں۔ اس حد تک کہ کسی بھی کانٹینٹ کو سرمایہ کاری کی تحقیقات کے طور پر سمجھا جاتا ہے، آپ کو نوٹ کرنا اور قبول کرنا ہوگا کہ یہ کانٹینٹ سرمایہ کاری کی تحقیق کی آزادی کو فروغ دینے کے لئے ڈیزائن کردہ قانونی تقاضوں کے مطابق نہیں ہے اور تیار نہیں کیا گیا ہے، اسی طرح، اس پر غور کیا جائے گا بطور متعلقہ قوانین اور ضوابط کے تحت مارکیٹنگ مواصلات۔ براہ کرم یقینی بنائیں کہ آپ غیر آزاد سرمایہ کاری سے متعلق ہماری اطلاع کو پڑھ اور سمجھ چکے ہیں۔ مذکورہ بالا معلومات کے بارے میں تحقیق اور رسک وارننگ ، جس تک رسائی یہاں حاصل کی جا سکتی ہے۔
