UnitedHealthcare and UWH of North Carolina to Address Maternal Health Needs With Group Prenatal Care Initiative
October 20 2021 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
$175,000 from UnitedHealthcare will support
the implementation of new CenteringPregnancy sites at OB-GYN
practices in North Carolina
UnitedHealthcare and UWH of North Carolina, an
affiliated medical practice of Unified Women’s Healthcare, today
announced an initiative using the group prenatal care model,
CenteringPregnancy, to improve outcomes and reduce racial and
social disparities among mothers in North Carolina by providing
access to quality maternal care.
With $175,000 in support from UnitedHealthcare, the
collaboration with UWH of North Carolina will launch the
CenteringPregnancy initiative at Laurel OB-GYN in Asheville;
Catawba Women’s Center in Hickory; Carteret OB-GYN and Associates
in Morehead City; and Wayne Women’s Clinic in Goldsboro. These
locations were identified in collaboration with local health care
providers as practices that may benefit from the introduction of
CenteringPregnancy.
CenteringPregnancy is an evidence-based model of group prenatal
care shown to improve a wide range of birth outcomes including
lowering the risk of preterm births, reducing low birth weights,
increasing rates of breastfeeding, increasing postpartum depression
screenings and promoting healthier pregnancy spacing. The
initiative brings together up to 12 people with similar due dates,
their partners, support people and health care team to meet for 10
prenatal visits. Participants engage in their care by measuring
their weight and blood pressure, recording their health data and
meeting privately with their provider for the clinical
assessment.
The funding will also provide support to sustain four current
CenteringPregnancy sites at Chapel Hill OB-GYN in Chapel Hill;
Triangle Physicians for Women in Cary; Durham Women’s Clinic in
Durham; and Lyndhurst OB-GYN in Winston-Salem.
“We recognize that poor maternal health outcomes remain high
among women in North Carolina, and that Black women and infants
represent a disproportionate share of adverse outcomes," said Anita
Bachmann, CEO, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of North Carolina.
“Access to quality prenatal health care will help close the gap on
health inequity. We are proud to partner with UWH of North Carolina
to address disparities and improve maternal health outcomes in
North Carolina."
“Addressing maternal and prenatal health inequity means
challenging the status quo to transform health care in North
Carolina," said Dr. Barrett Gunter, OB-GYN at Durham Women's Clinic
and Unified Women's Healthcare medical director. "We applaud
UnitedHealthcare for recognizing the importance of maternal and
child health in improving care for all pregnancies across the
state."
According to March of Dimes, North Carolina ranks higher in the
preterm birth rate compared to the national average, and the
preterm birth rate among Black women is 46% higher than all other
women. North Carolina also has one of the highest infant mortality
rates in the country, with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention reporting 808 infant deaths since 2019. Overall, Black
women have at least twice the rate of severe maternal morbidity and
are at least three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related
complications, compared to white women.
The CenteringPregnancy initiative is one of several that
UnitedHealthcare, along with its parent company UnitedHealth Group,
is launching to address maternal health outcomes throughout the
United States. Recent initiatives include nearly $14 million in
philanthropic grants to support maternal health, and $2.85 million
in support to March of Dimes for a public-private partnership with
the Department of Health and Human Services that aims to reduce the
Black-white disparity gap and improve maternal health outcomes.
About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier
lives and making the health system work better for everyone by
simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and
wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care
providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full
spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and
Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with
more than 1.3 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500
hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also
provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned
and operated health care facilities in South America.
UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group
(NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more
information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC
on Twitter.
About UWH of North
Carolina
UWH of North Carolina is comprised of 51 practice offices in
North Carolina and South Carolina with more than 50 individual
practice offices and more than 200 highly trained, dedicated
physicians. The group joined the affiliated medical network of
Unified Women’s Healthcare (www.unifiedhc.com) in 2014, covering 12
counties in North Carolina and two counties in South Carolina. All
offices feature the latest in technological advances along with the
personal touch that is so important in achieving quality outcomes
for the patients’ health and well-being. The group also maintains
an in-house laboratory, mammography services, nutritional
counseling, and midwifery services. North Carolina is also home to
Unified Women’s Clinical Research, which maintains its headquarters
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This group collaborates among
four sites across the state that are involved in conducting and
partnering on clinical trials and studies involving investigational
medications, devices, gene therapy and vaccines.
About Unified Women’s
Healthcare
Unified Women’s Healthcare is a diversified women’s health
company focused on providing a better experience for patients, for
the people who care for them and for the people and organizations
who pay for that care. To support its vision of providing women
with the best healthcare in the world, Unified provides innovative
business support and technology to over 2,500 providers across
North America. Unified has expanded beyond its leading OB-GYN
management services platform to include reproductive healthcare
services through its strategic partnership with CCRM Fertility, and
the advancement of high-risk maternity care management services,
with its acquisition of Lucina. As a physician-led company, Unified
seeks innovative ways to preserve clinical autonomy, alleviate
business and regulatory burdens of running a practice, and empower
physicians to make the greatest impact on transforming women’s
healthcare for their patients. To learn more, please visit
unifiedhc.com.
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Isaac Sorensen Isaac.sorensen@uhc.com 952.931.5705
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