Meridian Health Plan of Illinois in the US and the Centene Foundation have announced a $1.5m award to OSF HealthCare for its OSF OnCall Connect pregnancy and postpartum programme expansion.

This three-year grant aims to enhance access to maternity care through a new mobile unit, especially for women who face challenges in obtaining pregnancy and postpartum support in Central Illinois.

The expansion of the programme will link patients to an in-person healthcare team, tailored to each patient's location and their ability to access in-person care.

The mobile clinic will provide a convenient solution for prenatal and postpartum care to patients within its service area, offering essential services, including lab work, sonograms, and vaccinations.

OSF OnCall president Jennifer Junis said: “Faced with numerous operational challenges, many rural hospitals in Illinois have shut down their labour and delivery units, leading to maternity care deserts.

“Pregnant women on Medicaid in rural areas are statistically more likely to die of a pregnancy-related complication than their suburban counterparts. We focused on areas with the greatest need, and our goal is for the OSF OnCall Connect pregnancy and postpartum mobile clinic to extend care to women who need it most, supporting healthier pregnancies, full-term births and strong starts for both moms and babies.”

The OSF OnCall Connect programme targets women with Medicaid coverage who are pregnant or in the first month postpartum.

The mobile unit will be operational as of this month. Patients eligible for the OSF OnCall Connect programme can enrol themselves or be referred by their healthcare provider.

The programme encompasses various services such as education, round-the-clock virtual care access, regular check-ins through chats, breastfeeding support, postpartum depression screenings, and monitoring and reporting blood pressure, and lab work.