The Illinois Workgroup to Improve Obstetric Care and Availability in Rural Areas is an alliance of stakeholders, including the Illinois Department of Public Health, Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network, Illinois Rural Health Association, Illinois Health and Hospital Association, Illinois State Medical Society, EverThrive Illinois, and a bipartisan group of Illinois legislators from the Illinois Senate and House. The alliance is working to tackle the issue of labor and delivery unit closures in rural hospitals across the state. These closures have created maternity care deserts or entire counties without obstetric care services. The alliance hosted the second working group meeting in January of 2024 at the Illinois State Capitol Building.
Kelly Hubbard, EverThrive Illinois’ Director of Policy and Advocacy, was asked to present her policy work on the 2023 March of Dimes Maternity Care Desert Report, for which she is listed as a co-author. The report is the latest release of data on maternity care deserts, areas with limited or no access to maternity care, across the United States. The data shows that pregnant and postpartum people living in these areas are at greater risk of poor maternal and infant health outcomes. The report also highlighted the increasing number of maternity care deserts due to the increasing number of hospital and maternity ward closures. Kelly presented the policy and program solutions discussed in the report for all 50 states, including telehealth, Medicaid reform, and healthcare workforce expansion. She addressed the state of maternity care deserts in Illinois and presented relevant policy solutions.
EverThrive Illinois is constantly working to advance access to high-quality, comprehensive health care for all communities and populations. EverThrive Illinois will work to introduce and advance policies to improve access to quality obstetric care in areas with low or no access to hospitals/birth centers offering obstetric care or obstetric providers. If you would like to join us in advocating for improving access to obstetric care across Illinois, please join our Policy Action Network today.