"We shouldn't have to run bake sales for birth control!"- Melissa Weiler Gerber, Access Matters
"One IUD only goes so far. Showing the State what postpartum IUDs can do for the health of a community is doubly impactful.
We are going to measure the impact of what we do." Courtney Schreiber, MD,MPH, Director PFPPLC
PostPartum LARC will be a reality in Pennsylvania
Today The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services announced the following:
Beginning December 1, 2016, Pennsylvania's Medicaid fee-for-service program will make payment for LARC devices to incentivize hospitals to stock and store them and eliminate the hurdle of high up-front costs of long-acting contraceptives.
Currently under Medicaid, hospitals received a bundled payment for labor and delivery services. Pennsylvania is implementing policies that now reimburse providers separately for the cost of the device when inserting an IUD or implants at the time of delivery, in addition to the bundled payments that hospitals receive for the delivery.
In addition, DHS is increasing certain Medical Assistance fee-for-service family planning rates for outpatient providers, including the insertion and removal of LARC, with the aim of reducing unplanned pregnancies and improving maternal and child health
This is a major victory for the Women of Pennsylvania, who will have access to postpartum LARC.
Thank you to the over 300 caring members of our community who donated over $158,000 to The LARC Project. Your generous contributions along with donated IUDs have provided over 600 new mothers with postpartum IUDs at HUP and paid the salary of the family planning research coordinator who helped with this project. More importantly, you put the issue of reproductive rights on the radar of our officials in Harrisburg who worked to implement this policy.
Our special thanks to Gov. Tom Wolf, DHS Sec.Ted Dallas and assistant Jen DeBell. Thanks to the PA LARC Coalition, including The Philadelphia Board of Health, Access Matters, PolicyLab at CHOP, Adolescent Gynecology Consultative Service CHOP, Penn Family Planning and Pregnancy Loss Center, The LARC Project, and Rep. Mary Jo Daly.
We have more work to do in order to increase LARC access for all women in Pennsylvania. We will be in touch soon to ask for your help. In the meantime please continue to support women's reproductive health by donating to Planned Parenthood and other women's health organizations.
---The LARC Project---
