Florida health policy committee hears New Jersey innovation authority and reviews Medicaid, public-health maternal initiatives

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate Committee on Health Policy on Oct. 12 heard a briefing on state and out‑of‑state approaches to maternal and infant health, including a virtual presentation from the New Jersey Maternal and Infant Health Innovation Authority and detailed summaries of Florida Medicaid coverage and Department of Health programs.

The committee, chaired by Sen. Colleen Burton, heard from Pamela Taylor, senior advisor to the New Jersey authority; Brian Meyer, deputy secretary for Medicaid at the Agency for Healthcare Administration; and Shay Holloway, division director at the Florida Department of Health. Members pressed presenters for additional information on doula certification, plan benefits and recent maternal‑mortality and infant‑mortality data.

Taylor described New Jersey’s centralized approach to maternal and infant health. "The maternal and infant health crisis is not, just solely in the state of New Jersey, but it's throughout the United States," she said, and outlined an array of state actions, including universal home visiting, Medicaid coverage for doula care, a hospital maternity report card and a statutory authority created to sustain the work. Taylor said the New Jersey authority was established by Senate Bill 3864 and described the authority as a "hybrid" entity that can take state appropriations and philanthropic donations to support a physical Maternal and Infant Health Innovation Center with clinical services, workforce development and an incubator for maternal‑health innovations.

From AHCA, Meyer summarized Florida Medicaid coverage across pregnancy phases and described changes tied to the state’s managed care contracts. He said Medicaid in Florida serves about 4.3 million enrollees and covers roughly half of the state’s births. On coverage, he explained the difference between presumptive eligibility during pregnancy and full eligibility, and provided program counts for the 2023–24 fiscal year. "Presumptive eligibility ... allows a woman to access prenatal care while the Department of Children and Families eligibility staff makes a regular determination of eligibility," Meyer said. He also noted that the state’s SMMC managed‑care contracts include expanded benefits offered by plans — such as doula services, home visits and virtual pregnancy support — and that the agency is tightening quality incentives in the new SMMC 3.0 contracts, including a withhold/redistribution pool to reward higher performance.

Meyer and senators discussed operational questions: how many plans offer doula services, whether the state will set doula certification standards, and how to avoid duplicating services already provided by Healthy Start. Meyer said plans set many expanded‑benefit details and that AHCA would follow up with more information on certification and plan participation. He described a separate monthly maternity "kick" payment that AHCA issues to plans to account for delivery volume and said it is separate from rates paid through the capitated premium.

Holloway outlined Department of Health programs and data resources. She cited Florida Charts, the state data portal, and summarized recent indicators the department tracks: Florida’s pregnancy‑related death ratio was 15.6 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022, and the infant mortality rate was 6 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2023. She said the state’s Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant supports the Maternal Mortality Review Committee, the Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative (FPQC), an electronic prenatal risk screen that the department is moving from paper to an electronic process, and county Healthy Start programs. "We cut down from 33 days from the time she gets screened till she sees a home visitor to 5 days," Holloway said of the electronic prenatal‑screen roll‑out piloted last year.

Holloway also provided program-level figures: the state’s Title V block grant is about $21.4 million for the current year; the department provides roughly $1 million annually to the FPQC; Healthy Start coalitions receive a combined total of over $40 million from state sources and AHCA and serve more than 230,000 families; WIC operates in all 67 counties with more than $544 million in funding and average monthly participation near 430,000; and a telehealth maternity program served more than 10,000 women in the last year, with an estimated $41 million in avoided costs tied to lower emergency‑department visits and hospitalizations among participants.

Committee members repeatedly returned to doulas, certification and workforce supply. Sen. Rosalyn Osgood and Sen. Gail Harrell emphasized standards and training so Medicaid‑reimbursed doulas meet consistent criteria; Meyer said AHCA would follow up on how plans currently set training requirements. Senators also raised concerns about "maternity deserts" — counties or regions where hospital maternity services are closing — and asked how Medicaid incentives and network adequacy rules address local gaps; Meyer said network adequacy is enforced at the region level and that the agency will work with plans if hospital network disruptions occur.

No formal committee votes were recorded during the meeting. Members asked multiple staff and agency presenters to provide follow‑up materials: AHCA on doula program details and plan participation, AHCA and DOH on performance metrics and maternal‑mortality numbers, and DOH on the Maternal Mortality Review Committee report and evaluation results for the BH Impact behavioral‑health pilot. The committee adjourned after the presentations and questions.

Why this matters: Florida lawmakers are reviewing operational steps and incentives — from managed‑care contract design to public‑health home visits and workforce training — that affect access, quality and equity in maternal and infant care. Presentations from a state authority in New Jersey and Florida agencies supplied models, current program data and a list of follow‑up items for committee review.

(Reporting note: quotes and attributions are taken from the committee transcript. The article does not infer unspoken policy intentions or outcomes beyond those described in the record.)