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Patient advocate urges the commission to expand Medicaid access and timely reimbursement for licensed midwives
Summary
Diane Graham, a patient advocate and Virginia Humanities fellow, asked the commission to support a budget amendment enabling licensed midwives to bill Medicaid earlier in pregnancy and to remove structural billing barriers that threaten midwifery practices in rural areas.
Diane Graham, a longtime patient advocate, told the commission that licensed midwives face structural barriers to serving Medicaid beneficiaries and that those barriers are contributing to shrinking childbirth options in rural Virginia.
Graham said that under current policies many licensed midwives cannot bill Medicaid until late in pregnancy (sometimes as late as 36—38 weeks), making midwifery care financially unsustainable for small…
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