New Findings from University of Maryland Describe Advances in Managed Care (Association of the Delaware Contraceptive Access Now Initiative With Postpartum Larc Use): Managed Care

2022 MAY 26 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Managed Care. According to news reporting originating from College Park, Maryland, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Although multi-component policy interventions can be important tools to increase access to contraception, we know little about how they may change contraceptive use among postpartum women. We estimate the association of the Delaware Contraceptive Access Now (DelCAN) initiative with use of postpartum Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC).”

Financial support for this research came from NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD).

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the University of Maryland, “DelCAN included Medicaid payment reform for immediate postpartum LARC use, provider training and technical assistance in LARC provision, and a public awareness campaign. We used a difference-in-differences design and data from the 2012 to 2017 pregnancy risk assessment monitoring system to compare changes in postpartum LARC use in Delaware versus 15 comparison states, and differences in such changes by women’s Medicaid enrollment. Relative to the comparison states, postpartum LARC use in Delaware increased by 5.26 percentage points (95% CI 2.90-7.61, P< 0.001) during the 2015-2017 DelCAN implementation period. This increase was the largest among Medicaid-covered women, and grew over the first three implementation years. By the third year of the DelCAN initiative (2017), the relative increase in postpartum LARC use for Medicaid women exceeded that for non-Medicaid women by 7.24 percentage points (95% CI 0.12-14.37, P = 0.046). Conclusions for Practice The DelCAN initiative was associated with increased LARC use among postpartum women in Delaware. During the first 3 years of the initiative, LARC use increased progressively and to a greater extent among Medicaid-enrolled women.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Comprehensive initiatives that combine Medicaid payment reforms, provider training, free contraceptive services, and public awareness efforts may reduce unmet demand for highly effective contraceptives in the postpartum months.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Association of the Delaware Contraceptive Access Now Initiative With Postpartum Larc Use. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 2022. Maternal and Child Health Journal can be contacted at: Springer|plenum Publishers, 233 Spring St, New York, NY 10013, USA. (Springer - www.springer.com; Maternal and Child Health Journal - http://www.springerlink.com/content/1092-7875/)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Monica L. Caudillo, University of Maryland, Dept. of Sociology, 3143 Parren Mitchell Art Sociol Bldg, College Park, MD 20742, United States. Additional authors for this research include Constanza Hurtado-Acuna, Michael S. Rendall and Michel Boudreaux.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-022-03433-2. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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