The Influence of Site of Care on the Content of Prenatal Care for Low-Income Women

Objective: To assess whether site of prenatal care influences the content of prenatal care for low-income women. Design: Bivariate and logistic analyses of prenatal care content for low-income women provided at five different types of care sites (private offices, HMOs, publicly funded clinics, hospital clinics, and other sites of care), controlling for sociodemographic, behavioral, and maternal health characteristics. Participants: A sample of 3405 low-income women selected from a nationally representative sample of 9953 women surveyed by the National Maternal and Infant Health Survey, who had singleton live births in 1988, had some prenatal care (PNC), Medicaid participation, or a family income less than $12,000/year. Outcome Measures: Maternal report of seven initial PNC procedures (individually and combined), six areas of PNC advice (individually and combined), and participation in the Women Infant Children (WIC) nutrition program. Results: The content of PNC provided for low-income women does not meet the recommendations of the U.S. Public Health Service, and varies by site of delivery. Low-income women in publicly funded clinics (health departments and community health centers) report receiving more total initial PNC procedures and total PNC advice and have greater participation in the WIC program than similar women receiving PNC in private offices. Conclusions: Publicly funded sites of care appear to provide more comprehensive prenatal care services than private office settings. Health care systems reforms which assume equality of care across all sites, or which limit services to restricted sites, may foster unequal access to comprehensive PNC.     

Health care barriers and interventions for battered women.

Family violence is a major public health problem. Battered women present with multiple physical injuries in hospital emergency rooms, clinics, and personal physicians'' offices. Yet, they are often not identified as battered and fail to receive appropriate treatment for the nonphysical effects of these events. Instead, only discrete physical injuries are identified. The authors explore the literature to identify barriers in recognizing and treating battered women. These barriers are viewed as a microcosm of the larger public health problem in which battered women fear identifying themselves and often are not recognized by public health professionals. Some barriers pertain to the victims themselves; others can be attributed to the attitudes of medical care providers in emergency rooms, clinics, and private physicians'' offices. The many faceted needs of victims require a variety of interventions including medical models, criminal justice intervention systems, and social models for change. Some intervention strategies that are currently being employed in various programs in the United States are described.     

Adolescents and access to health care.

The developmental characteristics and health behaviors of adolescents make the availability of certain services--including reproductive health services, diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted disease, mental health and substance abuse counseling and treatment--critically important. Furthermore, to serve adolescents appropriately, services must be available in a wide range of health care settings, including community-based adolescent health, family planning and public health clinics, school-based and school-linked health clinics, physicians'' offices, HMOs, and hospitals. National, authoritative content standards (for example, the American Medical Association''s Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS), a multispecialty, interdisciplinary guideline for a package of clinical preventive services for adolescents may increase the possibility that insurers will cover adolescent preventive services, and that these services will become part of health professionals'' curricula and thus part of routine practice. However, additional and specific guidelines mandating specific services that must be available to adolescents in clinical settings (whether in schools or in communities) are also needed. Although local government, parents, providers, and schools must assume responsibility for ensuring that health services are available and accessible to adolescents, federal and state financing mandates are also needed to assist communities and providers in achieving these goals. The limitations in what even comprehensive programs currently are able to provide, and the dismally low rates of preventive service delivery to adolescents, suggests that adolescents require multiple points of access to comprehensive, coordinated services, and that preventive health interventions must be actively and increasingly integrated across health care, school, and community settings. Unless access issues are dealt with in a rational, coordinated fashion, America''s adolescents will not have access to appropriate health services. Current efforts to minimize current health care expenditures through managed care programs inevitably conflict with efforts to deliver comprehensive preventive services to all adolescents. Use of multiple sites may not represent inadequate access to care. However, as managed care reimbursement continues to expand, school-based clinics and free-standing adolescent health programs increasingly report decreases in reimbursement without a change in demand for services. The Office of Technology Assessment study called for explicit funding and expansion of services for America''s youth; since then, a federal Office of Adolescent Health has been authorized, and, by the time this reaches print, should have received appropriations and been staffed. Dryfoos has called for expansion to nearly 5000 comprehensive programs in the coming years.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Evaluation of California's statewide implementation of enhanced perinatal services as Medicaid benefits.

The authors evaluated enhanced perinatal services developed by public health specialists that were implemented statewide through specially certified Medicaid providers to find out whether they were as effective as those services originally tested in the public health agency''s pilot project, and more effective than services from regular Medicaid providers. Multivariate logistic regression analyses yielded adjusted odds ratios of use of care and health outcome measures for the statewide services compared with both the pilot project and routine Medicaid care. Although women receiving the enhanced services implemented statewide did not return for prenatal visits as well as those in the pilot project, they did better than women with routine Medicaid providers. Women who kept at least the eight prenatal visits recommended by the Public Health Service in 1989 had risks of low weight births no different from those in the pilot project and significantly better than those for women with at least eight visits with routine Medicaid providers (adjusted odds ratio 0.70 with a 95 percent confidence interval from 0.54 to 0.91). Thus, there is evidence for the efficacy of the services, but additional improvement could be realized through improving the use of care.     

Delivery of preventive services for low-income persons over age 50: a comparison of community health clinics to private doctors' offices

This study focused on the use of 14 evidence-based preventive services for the low-income population over age 50: colorectal, breast and cervical cancer screening, cholesterol screening, counseling around diet, exercise, tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs, and immunizations for influenza, tetanus and pneumonia. Population characteristics and rates of delivery of these preventive services are compared for low-income users of community health clinics vs private doctors' offices/HMOs. Three nationally representative data-files from the National Health Interview Survey—the Person-Level File, Sample Adult File, and Sample Adult Prevention File—were linked to obtain the necessary data on preventive services use in the 12,024 persons over age 50. Among the population of persons over age 50 living below 200% of the poverty threshold, those using community clinics were more likely to be younger, a racial or ethnic minority, less formally educated, in poorer health, uninsured, and more likely to face time, transportation or cost barriers to obtaining health care (p < .01 for all comparisons), than their counterparts using private doctors' offices/HMOs. Community health clinics performed as well as private doctors/HMOs in the delivery of cancer screening, cholesterol screening and immunizations to lower income persons over 50 years. Rates of counseling about diet and exercise were higher among users of private doctor's offices than among users of community health clinics users (40% vs. 31% respectively, p = .02). Despite the severe resource constraints under which they operate, and the greater vulnerability of the population they serve, community clinics deliver preventive services at rates comparable to private doctors' offices and HMOs.     

Access policies and utilization patterns in prenatal and child delivery care in Mexico

In Mexico, people utilize public, private and traditional health providers interchangeably and in contrast to official access policies. Access policies for prenatal and child delivery services are evaluated using data from the National Health Survey of 1988. The study documents significant coverage gaps on the part of public providers with respect to their potential coverage, and especially, large cross-utilization of social security, Ministry of Health and private providers by beneficiaries. Child deliveries in Mexico are attended by a physician in only 66% of cases. The percentages are 85% for social security affiliates, 53% for women within reach of IMSS-Solidarity services (a relief programme for the rural poor) and only 31% for women with official access to private or Ministry of Health care, or beyond the reach of services. Seventy-eight per cent of medical deliveries by women affiliated to social security occur at their pre-paid facilities, while 14% deliver at extra cost with private physicians, contributing to 32% of deliveries so offered. Even though only 7% of insured women deliver at Ministry of Health facilities, this amounts to 20% of the Ministry's relief offer. In all, only 66% of affiliates use social security delivery services. On the other hand, 36% of deliveries by non-insured women are cared for by Ministry of Health providers, and 39% by the private sector; 22% of such deliveries occur in social security institutions, amounting to 18% of these institutions' care offer. These results indicate a wide departure between policy and fact, and the working of distributive and redistributive forces that impinge on the quality and efficiency of health care. Open access to the reproductive health services of all public institutions, with coordination among them and private providers, is suggested as a possible solution.     

Physician Practices in Response to Intimate Partner Violence in Southern India: Insights from a Qualitative Study

Health care providers in India are often the only institutional contact for women experiencing intimate partner violence, a pervasive public health problem with adverse health outcomes. This qualitative study was among the first to examine Indian primary care physicians' intimate partner violence practices. Between July 2007 and January 2008, 30 in-depth interviews were conducted with physicians serving low-to-middle income women aged 18–30 in southern India. A modified grounded theory approach was used for data collection and analysis. Study findings revealed a distinct subset of ‘physician champions’ who responded to intimate partner violence more consistently, informed women of their rights, and facilitated their utilization of support services. Findings also offered insights into physicians' ability to identify indications of intimate partner violence and use of potentially culturally appropriate practices to respond to intimate partner violence, even without training. However, physician practices were mediated by individual attitudes. Although not generalizable, findings offer some useful lessons which may be transferable for adaptation to other settings. A potential starting point is to study physicians' current practices, focusing on their safety and efficacy, as well as enhancing these practices through appropriate training. Further research is also needed on women's perspectives on the appropriateness of physicians' practices, and women's recommendations for intimate partner violence intervention strategies.     

Ethnic disparity in the performance of prenatal nutrition risk assessment among Medicaid-eligible women.

In this study, the authors compare perinatal health outcomes and nutrition risk assessments in Latina, African American, and white women receiving Medicaid enhanced perinatal services. The objective is to analyze how proper assessment of obesity and underweight depend upon ethnic group, provider practice setting and credentials, and the implications for perinatal outcomes. The medical records of women who received enhanced perinatal services from specially certified Medicaid providers in California were abstracted for information on nutrition risk assessment and outcomes. Logistic regression analysis was used to test the associations first of obesity and underweight with adverse outcomes in Latina, African American and white women, then the associations of ethnicity with the failure of these women to be classified as overweight or underweight during assessment. Finally, the associations between misclassification of body mass with provider practice setting type and credentials are also tested. Obese Latinas are twice as likely not to be properly classified as overweight, despite evidence of substantial risk of unfavorable outcomes. For all three ethnic groups, underweight women are uniformly underreported as being at risk. The appropriate classifications of obesity and underweight are not associated with private or public types of obstetric practice settings or whether nutrition risk assessors are registered dietitians, health workers, or nurses of any particular credential. Providers of prenatal care to low-income women could improve the quality of nutrition risk assessment of overweight Latina women and underweight women of all ethnic groups with expectations of improving perinatal outcomes.     

Private Care and Public Health: Do Vaccination and Prenatal Care Rates Differ between Users of Private versus Public Sector Care in India?

Objective. To determine whether patients who use private sector providers for curative services have lower vaccination rates and are less likely to receive prenatal care.
Data Sources/Study Setting. This study uses data from the 52d round of the National Sample Survey, a nationally representative socioeconomic and health survey of 120,942 rural and urban Indian households conducted in 1995–1996.
Study Design. Using logistic regression, we estimate the relationship between receipt of preventive care at any time (vaccinations for children, prenatal care for pregnant women) and use of public or private care for outpatient curative services, controlling for demographics, household socioeconomic status, and state of residence.
Data Collection/Extraction Methods. We analyzed samples of children ages 0 to 4 and pregnant women who used medical care within a 15-day window prior to the survey.
Principal Findings. With the exception of measles vaccination, predicted probabilities of the receipt of vaccinations and prenatal care do not differ based on the type of provider at which children and women sought curative care. Children and pregnant women in households who use private care are almost twice as likely to receive preventive care from private sources, but the majority still obtains preventive care from public providers.
Conclusions. We do not find support for the hypothesis that children and pregnant women who use private care are less likely to receive public health services. Results are consistent with the notion that Indian households are able to successfully navigate the coexisting public and private systems, and obtain services selectively from each. However, because the study employed an observational, cross-sectional study design, findings should be interpreted cautiously.     

Preferences for home delivery in Ethiopia: Provider perspectives

More than half of the maternal deaths worldwide occur in sub-Saharan Africa, most commonly during childbirth or the immediate post-partum period. Although delivery in health care facilities can avert maternal deaths, many women in sub-Saharan Africa continue to deliver at home. Factors influencing mothers' decisions to use facility-based delivery services in rural, low-income settings are not well understood. Health care professionals who provide delivery services in these areas may have unique insights about factors specific to such settings. Accordingly, we conducted a qualitative study of health care professionals in rural Ethiopia to determine key factors influencing facility delivery, using in-depth interviews and the constant comparative method of data analysis. Results suggest multiple influences on women's decisions to deliver at home, including inadequate resources in facilities; unappealing aspects of delivery in facility settings; and known barriers to accessing services such as distance, transportation and cost. Our findings suggest that local health care providers offer valuable insight into why many rural Ethiopian women deliver their babies at home, despite major efforts to promote facility-based delivery. Their perspectives underscore the importance of a patient-centred approach to delivery services, which is often lacking in low-resource settings but may be fundamental to encouraging facility-based deliveries.     

Low-income women's perceptions of family planning service alternatives

A sample of 665 low-income women from a predominantly rural area of north central Florida rated the value of 25 features of family planning providers and reported their perceptions of how characteristic each feature was of different types of providers. A well-trained, trustworthy and friendly staff, the presence of a doctor if you need one and a staff that is gentle with the examination were the most desirable features of family planning services. The respondents' perceptions of public health clinics suggest that the strongest qualities of such facilities are that they treat people from different backgrounds, accept Medicaid, are easy to find and teach you how to avoid pregnancy and how to take care of yourself and stay healthy. Features thought most characteristic of private physician services were a well-trained staff, privacy and the presence of a doctor if you need one. Voluntary organizations were seen as providing services for people of different backgrounds, having a friendly staff, serving as a referral agency and teaching about staying healthy and avoiding pregnancy. However, voluntary organizations were rated lower than public health clinics or private physicians on nearly all features. The total scores for public health clinics and private physicians were not significantly different from each other, but both were noticeably higher than the score for voluntary organizations. Ethnicity affected ratings dramatically, with black respondents clearly more favorable toward public health clinics and private physicians than white respondents; conversely, whites were more positive toward voluntary organizations than were blacks. For many of these low-income respondents, the high ratings of private physicians may have represented their expectations rather than their actual experience.     

Contraception and abortion coverage: what do primary care physicians think?

BackgroundInsurance coverage for family planning services has been a highly controversial element of the US health care reform debate. Whether primary care providers (PCPs) support public and private health insurance coverage for family planning services is unknown.Study DesignPCPs in three states were surveyed regarding their opinions on health plan coverage and tax dollar use for contraception and abortion services.ResultsAlmost all PCPs supported health plan coverage for contraception (96%) and use of tax dollars to cover contraception for low-income women (94%). A smaller majority supported health plan coverage for abortions (61%) and use of tax dollars to cover abortions for low-income women (63%). In adjusted models, support of health plan coverage for abortions was associated with female gender and internal medicine specialty, and support of using tax dollars for abortions for low-income women was associated with older age and internal medicine specialty.ConclusionThe majority of PCPs support health insurance coverage of contraception and abortion, as well as tax dollar subsidization of contraception and abortion services for low-income women.     

Improving prenatal care services for low-income African American women and infants

Increasing the level of prenatal care among African American women may be one method of improving the health and well-being of African American women and children. This article identifies factors influencing access to and use of prenatal care and strategies for increasing the use of prenatal care among low-income African American women. Barriers to prenatal care, the strengths and limitations of prenatal care in reducing infant mortality and improving infant outcomes, and the importance of providing more comprehensive prenatal care that addresses both the medical and psychosocial needs of the low-income African American mother and her infant are discussed. Changes in prenatal care services that include the medical and lay communities, public health organizations, public policy organizations, and medical financing institutions are identified.     

Perceived quality of and access to care among poor urban women in Kenya and their utilization of delivery care: harnessing the potential of private clinics?

This paper uses data from a maternal health study carried out in 2006 in two slums of Nairobi, Kenya, to: describe perceptions of access to and quality of care among women living in informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya; quantify the effects of women's perceived quality of, and access to, care on the utilization of delivery services; and draw policy implications regarding the delivery of maternal health services to the urban poor. Based on the results of the facility survey, all health facilities were classified as 'appropriate' or 'inappropriate'. The research was based on the premise that despite the poor quality of these maternal health facilities, their responsiveness to the socio-cultural and economic sensitivities of women would result in good perceptions and higher utilization by women. Our results show a pattern of women's good perceptions in terms of access to, and quality of, health care provided by the privately owned, sub-standard and often unlicensed clinics and maternity homes located within their communities. In the multivariate model, the association between women's perceptions of access to and quality of care, and delivery at these 'inappropriate' facilities remained strong, graded and in the expected direction. Women from the study area are seldom able to reach not-for-profit private providers of maternal health care services like missionary and non-governmental organization (NGO) clinics and hospitals. Against the backdrop of challenges faced by the public sector in health care provision, we recommend that the government should harness the potential of private clinics operating in urban, resource-deprived settings. First, the government should regulate private health facilities operating in urban slum settlements to ensure that the services they offer meet the acceptable minimum standards of obstetric care. Second, 'good' facilities should be given technical support and supplied with drugs and equipment.     

Health Departments Do It Better: Prenatal Care Site and Prone Infant Sleep Position

Objectives: Reduction of prone infant sleep position has been the main public health effort to reduce the incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Methods: Oregon Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) surveys a stratified random sample of women after a live birth. In 1998–1999, 1867 women completed the survey (64.0% unweighted response; 73.5% weighted response). Results: Overall, 9.2% of all women “usually” chose prone infant sleep position, while 24.2% chose side and 66.5% chose supine position. Women receiving care from private physicians or HMOs more often chose prone position (10.6%) than women receiving prenatal care from health department clinics (2.5%), hospital clinics (6.1%) or other sites (8.3%). Compared to health department prenatal clinic patients, private prenatal patients were more likely to choose prone infant sleep position, adjusted odds ratio = 4.78 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.64–13.92). Conclusions: Health Department clinics have done a better job than private physicians in educating mothers about putting infants to sleep on their backs. Providers—especially private providers—should continue to stress the importance of supine sleep position for infants.     

Access to care for low-income women: the impact of Medicaid

This study was undertaken to assess how low-income women with Medicaid, private insurance, or no insurance vary with regard to personal characteristics, health status, and health utilization. Data are from a telephone interview survey of a representative cross-sectional sample of 5,200 low-income women in Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, Florida, and Texas. On the whole, low-income women were found to experience considerable barriers to care; however, uninsured low-income women have significantly more trouble obtaining care, receive fewer recommended services, and are more dissatisfied with the care they receive than their insured counterparts. Women on Medicaid had access to care that was comparable with their low-income privately insured counterparts, but in general had significantly lower satisfaction with their providers and their plans. Future federal and state efforts should focus on expanding efforts to improve the scope and reach of health care coverage to low-income women through public or private means.     

Piecing together the crazy quilt of prenatal care

The failure to provide adequate prenatal care for low-income pregnant women in the United States and the effects of this failure on infant mortality are well known. Many studies have identified institutional barriers against access to care as a major cause. To overcome these barriers, Public Health District V, South Central Idaho, has created a comprehensive prenatal health care model that has almost tripled participation in its program during the first year of implementation and increased it again significantly during the second year. This decentralized pregnancy program has succeeded in getting all of the physicians offering obstetrical care in the district to serve low-income pregnant clients on a rotating basis. The new program provides pregnancy testing as well as financial screening services. Also, it has combined support services into one-stop-shopping clinics that include an innovative expansion of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. WIC food vouchers help attract clients into the prenatal care system and keep them coming. Enrichment of the duties of the public health nurse provides case coordination that pulls together the patchwork of medical and support services for the pregnant client.     

Legal Mechanisms Supporting Accountable Care Principles

Public health and private providers and facilities may shape the future of the US health system by engaging in new ways to deliver care to patients.“Accountable care” contracts allow private health care and public health providers and facilities to collaboratively serve defined populations. Accountable care frameworks emphasize health care quality and cost savings, among other goals.In this article, I explore the legal context for accountable care, including the mechanisms by which providers, facilities, and public health coordinate activities, avoid inefficiencies, and improve health outcomes. I highlight ongoing evaluations of the impact of accountable care on public health outcomes.As the US health system undergoes transformation, public health departments are engaging in new ways to deliver health care with private entities. One such method is “accountable care,” the coordinated provision of patient services by health care and public health providers and facilities with the goals of improving outcomes and avoiding inefficiencies.1 The core tenets of accountable care are prevention, health care quality, patient satisfaction for the population served, and cost savings to the health care system.1 Accountable care frameworks are based on risk and reward, with providers and facilities agreeing to collectively share the financial risk for a population in return for the opportunity to access rewards for attaining preestablished health care goals.Entities that seek to engage in accountable care are formed according to legal principles governing businesses and contracts, but federal and state laws2 specifically incentivize the formation and success of these entities by establishing antitrust waivers, fraud and abuse protections, and mandates to coordinate care. Although much has been written on the legal basis for establishing accountable care entities, with this article, I seek to inform public health practitioners of the relationship between the laws that recognize accountable care principles and the public health goals of improving patient care, impacting quality and outcomes, and measuring population health.In this article, I discuss 3 mechanisms by which providers, facilities, and public health may contract together to maintain legal entities that implement accountable care principles. First, health care providers and payers have pursued private contracts to provide accountable care to improve outcomes in their patient populations.3 Second, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services authorizes Medicare reimbursements for legal entities certified as accountable care organizations (ACOs) through traditional fee-for-service and other payments upon meeting benchmark cost and quality standards.4 Third, state laws incorporate accountable care mechanisms into Medicaid provisions, permitting state programs to reimburse accountable care entities that serve vulnerable populations.5 Finally, I offer suggestions for evaluating the impacts of accountable care on public health outcomes.     

Public or private providers? U.S. women's use of reproductive health services

CONTEXT: U.S. women receive contraceptive and reproductive health services from a wide range of publicly funded and private providers. Information on trends in and on patterns of service use can help policymakers and program planners assess the adequacy of current services and plan for future improvements. METHODS: Women who reported in the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth that they had obtained any contraceptive or other reproductive health service in the past year were classified by their primary source of care, and the services they received, their characteristics and their primary source of care were analyzed. Logistic regression was used to test which factors predict women's use of publicly subsidized family planning clinics and of specific types of services. RESULTS: The percentage of women of reproductive age who obtained family planning services increased slightly between 1988 and 1995, primarily among women aged 30 and older. Nearly one in four women who received any contraceptive care visited a publicly funded family planning clinic, as did one in three who received contraceptive counseling or sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing and treatment. Women whose primary source of reproductive care was a publicly funded family planning clinic received a wider range of services than women who visited private providers; moreover, the former were significantly more likely to report obtaining contraceptive care or STD-related care, even after the effects of their background characteristics were controlled. Young, unmarried, minority, less-educated and poor women were more likely than others to depend on publicly subsidized family planning clinics. Source of health insurance was one of the most important predictors of the use of public family planning clinics: Medicaid recipients and uninsured women were 3-4 times as likely as women with private insurance to obtain clinic care. CONCLUSIONS: Publicly funded family planning clinics are an important source of contraceptive and other reproductive health care, providing millions of U.S. women with a wide range of services. Since women's need for reproductive care and for publicly subsidized care is not likely to diminish, clinics may be financially challenged in their efforts to continue delivering this broad package of services to growing numbers of uninsured or disenfranchised women.