For expectant mothers and families, pregnancy is often an exciting time—but it can also be fraught with complications, fear, and stress. The US is in the midst of a maternal- and infant-health crisis, particularly for women and babies of color. For many women, access to quality care during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum is out of reach.
The infant and maternal mortality rates in the US are among the highest such rates in developed countries, and Black women are over 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy complications than white women. In Georgia, maternal mortality rates are some of the highest in the nation, with 46.2 maternal deaths per 1,000 live births for all women (nearly 2 times the national average) and 66.6 deaths per 100,000 live births for African American women. Social drivers of health, such as transportation and food security, have a direct impact on that mortality rate. Without access to transportation, expectant mothers often struggle with appointment adherence, which results in adverse health outcomes for mothers and babies. Pregnant people in Georgia are no stranger to the burden that lack of reliable transportation can put on their growing families.
Since its inception, Uber Health has been committed to improving maternal health by enabling access to care throughout every stage of pregnancy. That’s why we’re excited to announce our new collaboration with Amerigroup Georgia (a managed care plan and subsidiary of Elevance Health) and Georgia’s Primary Care Association (GPCA). Through this partnership, we’ll enable federally qualified health centers (FQHC) in Georgia to help expectant mothers get the care they need when they need it and to provide them with additional support—such as help with meals, goods, and groceries—via delivery.
Elevance Health’s maternal child approach is designed to address whole-person health across the continuum of care from preconception to postpartum. Elevance Health applies a clinical approach aimed at elevating the health of women and babies through streamlined engagement, proactive education, tailored interventions, and a focus on digital and AI technology to advance maternity care.
More access for more moms
At the end of 2022, Amerigroup Georgia and Uber Health launched the Maternal Health Access Research Project, a pilot program that helps expectant and postpartum mothers in the Atlanta and Savannah metro areas access transportation to and from care appointments and purchase food or other necessary goods. As part of this pilot project, the Georgia Primary Care Association and Amerigroup Georgia have created a program that will work with existing plan designs and initiatives focused on social drivers of health and health equity to identify high-risk members who need mobility assistance and easy access to critical deliveries. Through this program, Amerigroup Georgia and the GPCA can use Uber Eats vouchers to provide access to healthy meal and grocery deliveries, and coordinators can use the Uber Health platform to request transportation for key appointments in a patient’s journey.
With an initial enrollment of 800 moms and the opportunity to scale, this pilot program will provide insight into how multiple groups across the care continuum can come together to support the care of Georgians. Working closely with Elevance Health (one of the nation’s leading health companies), Uber Health is excited to evaluate the impact of this innovative approach while helping people access transportation and critical deliveries.
“The United States is in a maternal health crisis,” said Caitlin Donovan, Global Head of Uber Health. “The country, unfortunately, continues to be an outlier among high-income, developed nations, with hundreds of pregnant people in the US dying each year from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. Plus, underrepresented groups and under-resourced communities face disproportionately higher rates of maternal mortality. We steadfastly believe that care begins with getting there—access to transportation to and from medical appointments is a foundational tool for maternal healthcare. We’re proud to build on our work with Elevance Health and the Georgia Primary Care Association, contributing to the well-being of pregnant people and their children in Georgia, and eventually, beyond.”
“We are deeply committed to the whole health of our members, and we continually seek innovative programming that can better support all the populations we serve, including pregnant women who may be at higher risk for complications.”
Dr. William Alexander, Chief Medical Officer, Amerigroup Georgia
“Through this collaborative effort with Uber Health, we can leverage our industry-leading data capabilities with Uber Health’s intuitive tools to help ensure that mothers across Georgia have access to the care and support they need for a healthy pregnancy.”
“Georgia FQHCs are key providers of health care to the uninsured and people with Medicaid in Georgia. A key component of our services is the provision of maternal health services to this traditionally underserved group of women,” said Duane Kavka, CEO of GPCA. “This pilot program will provide access to additional services, food, and transportation for high-risk maternal patients to improve access to care and pregnancy outcomes. Hopefully, it will serve as a step leading to future improvements in maternal services for the safety-net population. We look forward to working with Uber Health and Amerigroup on this commendable effort.”
Measuring success for a better tomorrow
To ensure that findings from the Maternal Health Access Research Project shape future maternal health–access programs, Uber Health and Elevance Health have committed to sharing the results from this pilot with the White House as part of its Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
The Uber Health and Elevance Health teams are excited about the program’s ability to provide additional services to those who are pregnant and the opportunity to scale the newly formed partnership between organizations in various use cases that bring member experience and proactive intervention to the forefront in Georgia and beyond.
To learn more about Uber Health’s work in the maternal health space, click here.