CMS to support text4baby in four states

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will award four states a three-year contract to support the implementation of text4baby, a free mobile health service for expecting and new moms.

CMS will collaborate with text4baby founding partners Voxiva and the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition to enroll Medicaid beneficiaries in the service. The target states for the pilot have yet to be determined, according to the announcement.

Text4baby customizes messages to users, which will include state-specific information. The messages cover many topics from pregnancy warning signs, benefits of full-term delivery, breastfeeding and oral health. Text4baby also includes interactive appointment and immunization reminders, educational videos and mobile web pages, links to health-related services and urgent health alerts.

Text4baby assesses its own impact on improving outcomes, with a focus on the quality measures of pre- and post-partum care and well-baby visit attendance. State partners will have access to real-time text4baby data on enrollment, utilization and self-reported outcomes, according to the announcement.

This project builds on the partnership between CMS and text4baby announced in 2012. Since its inception in 2010, text4baby has enrolled over 630,000 users and delivered over 75 million health messages and urgent alerts.

“This support from CMS will help demonstrate the critical role text4baby can play in improving health outcomes and how it can become part of the standard of care for mothers and babies who can benefit most,” text4baby Director Sarah Ingersoll said in a statement.