04/01/2025
Birth centers have been licensed in MN since 2010 and our state's freestanding birth center licensure and regulation model is known nationally as a model to be replicated. However for the business of the birth centers, the payment model is unfair and has prevented many of Minnesota's birth centers from thriving! American Association of Birth Centers (AABC) is working with legislation to fix a major payment problem!
The issue:
"When the birth center law was first passed, birth center advocates and lawmakers thought they had created language that allowed for payments for facility services for the birthing person and the baby. However, in about 2015 a procedural committee that works closely with state Medicaid held closed door meetings about birth center facility payment. Without engaging meaningfully with birth centers or notifying them of the change, DHS decided to stop paying for newborn facility services. Once medical assistance stopped paying for this service the managed care organizations shortly followed suit, and in the course of a few months birth centers lost a significant source of revenue.
In addition, facility payments for the birthing person were always unsustainably low creating impossible math for how to serve people insured through Medical Assistance. Despite birth centers achieving some of the best outcomes in the state of MN and reducing health disparities most centers are struggling to keep their doors open.
Our Goal
Through the MN Chapter of AABC birth centers are now working together with the MN DHS to amend the birth center legislation. These changes will create more accurate language that better reflects how birth centers should be paid for their facility services. When birth centers are paid appropriately for their services they are able to thrive and grow, allowing for more access to the best-on-class model of care that every Minnesotan deserves to have as an option." - AABC
