Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Maternal Health topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee hears testimony on bills to require insurer coverage for group prenatal care
Summary
The Michigan House Insurance Committee heard testimony in support of House Bills 4703 and 4704, which would require commercial insurers to cover group prenatal care — known as Centering Pregnancy — at parity with Medicaid’s payment rate; no vote was taken.
Lansing — The Michigan House Insurance Committee heard testimony Feb. 20 on House Bills 4703 and 4704, which would require commercial health insurers to cover group prenatal care sessions commonly called Centering Pregnancy at the same per-patient rate Michigan Medicaid currently pays.
Nicole, legislative aide to Representative Jennifer Wirtz, introduced the bills on behalf of the sponsor and said they would expand access to an evidence-based prenatal model that gives pregnant people longer provider contact and peer interaction.
"Centering Pregnancy is an evidence based model of prenatal care that improves health outcomes," Disha Patel, manager of health policy at the Centering Health Care Institute, told the committee. Patel said Centering can be delivered in person, via telehealth and using mobile units, and that it "reduces health system burden by keeping mothers out of emergency rooms, lowering NICU admissions, and avoiding hospitalizations." She provided outcome figures for Centering sites in 2024, saying preterm birth was 8.7 percent (national average 10.4 percent), low-birth-weight rate was 6.1 percent (national average 8.6 percent) and NICU admissions were 5.7 percent (national average 9.8 percent).
Patel said there are currently 41 Centering Pregnancy sites in Michigan and that continued program expansion is expected given a $5,000,000 allocation for fiscal 2026 intended to support the program.
Committee members questioned how the bills would change current payment practice. Patel told Representative Fitzgerald and other members that Michigan Medicaid pays $45 per patient per session for group prenatal care and that the bills would require commercial payers to cover the same $45 per patient per session. She said the current limitation is that private commercial contracts do not include the benefit; Medicaid policies explicitly cover group prenatal care and private plans generally do not.
Committee members also asked whether patients would be required to participate; Patel said participation would be voluntary and that if a patient began Centering and later opted out there would be no additional fees and the patient would continue with standard individual appointments.
Support for the bills was filed by multiple organizations; the chair read into the record support cards from the Michigan Health & Hospital Association, the Michigan Council of Maternal and Child Health, Memorial Healthcare, and the American College of Nurse Midwives. The committee did not vote on HB 4703 or HB 4704 at this meeting.
Votes at the meeting did address separate bills (see other articles). The committee recessed after reading supporting testimony for HB 4703 and HB 4704.
