Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health - Formerly 2020 Mom

Closing Gaps in Maternal Mental Health

The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health is a national think tank, nonprofit organization advancing policies that support a health care system that routinely detects and treats maternal mental health disorders for every mother, every time.

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CMS’ Final Rule on “Birthing-Friendly” Hospital Designations

CMS’ Final Rule on “Birthing-Friendly” Hospital Designations

November 02, 2022 by Sarah Johanek, MPH in POLICY

By The Policy Center Team

In December 2022, CMS announced more than 25 healthcare plans agreed to display the birthing-friendly icon in their hospital directories to denote the hospital's commitment to maternity care quality, safety, and equity. 

CMS will post the data on the Care Compare website this fall; initial results for the birthing-friendly designation will be posted in fall 2023.


CMS finalizes “Birthing-Friendly” hospital designations, available in Fall 2023.

“Birthing-Friendly” Hospital Designations are defined as “a publicly-reported, public-facing hospital designation on the quality and safety of maternity care.”

As outlined in our blog post titled “CMS Proposes New Rules Including Hospital “Birthing-Friendly” Designation to Address Quality and Equity,” CMS proposed a rule in April 2022 that “addresses actions inpatient and long-term hospitals must take to improve maternal health in delivery settings and ties those actions to Medicaid reimbursement.” This proposed rule included health equity-focused measures in hospital quality programs, sought stakeholder input related to documenting social determinants of health in inpatient claims data, and proposed a “Birthing-Friendly” hospital designation.

On August 1st, 2022, CMS finalized the proposed rule and is establishing Birthing-Friendly hospital designations in Fall 2023 and three health equity-focused measures in hospital quality programs. CMS will award this designation to hospitals that have participated in a national or statewide quality collaborative and carried out the recommended interventions. This will be determined by hospitals responding “Yes” to both questions in the Maternal Morbidity Structural Measure.

Additionally, for hospitals paid under the Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH)/Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) that successfully participate in the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program and are meaningful electronic health record users, the final rule will increase in operating payment rates of 4.3%. CMS expects to increase payments to hospitals paid under the Prospective Payment System (PPS), by approximately 2.4% or $71 million.

Read more about the finalized rule here.

The Policy Center is disseminating the maternal mental health Hospital Whole Mom standards with Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs) and will share progress through upcoming reports.

November 02, 2022 /Sarah Johanek, MPH
CMS, regulation, final rule, birthing-friendly, health-equity, measures, Federal Policy, POST
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The Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health is a DBA of 2020 Mom, a tax-exempt social change organization 501(c)(3). Tax ID: 45-5009704