Aetna Joins Efforts to Help Increase Safety of Scheduled Deliveries to Give Babies Healthier Starts
February 07 2011 - 4:02PM
Business Wire
Aetna (NYSE: AET) today announced a number of infant safety
programs launched in collaboration with the March of Dimes, The
Leapfrog Group and others. The programs encourage women, doctors
and hospitals to limit electively scheduled deliveries until at
least 39 weeks of pregnancy.
Aetna is:
- reaching out to our pregnant members to
let them know how important it is to give their babies the benefit
of full gestation
- helping and encouraging hospitals to
prevent earlier deliveries when they are not medically necessary
for the mother or baby
- letting members know which hospitals
have programs in place to avoid early electively scheduled
deliveries
“For every week prior to 39 weeks of pregnancy that a baby is
delivered, the chance of having health and development problems
that require care in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nearly
doubles,” says Marjorie Schulman, M.D., a senior medical director
at Aetna with 25 years experience as a NICU doctor. “We want to
help our members and doctors avoid that unnecessary risk. It’s
really a protective effort.”
In a scheduled delivery, labor does not begin on its own.
Instead, the doctor and the patient schedule a date to induce labor
or perform a caesarian section. The March of Dimes and professional
societies, including the American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists (ACOG), agree that deliveries should not be scheduled
before 39 weeks unless there is a medical reason. Despite this, the
trend of electively scheduled deliveries is rising. New data
released by The Leapfrog Group show that at some hospitals a third
or more of all deliveries are scheduled before the mother has
reached 39 weeks of pregnancy.
Supporting the March of Dimes' reach
The March of Dimes, working together with doctors, hospitals and
Aetna, has created a toolkit for hospitals to use to reduce
scheduled deliveries before 39 weeks without medical reason. Aetna
also has funded a March of Dimes program that is helping targeted
hospitals nationwide adopt prevention policies.
Recognizing hospitals
Additionally, Aetna is surveying and publicly recognizing
facilities that have established safety guidelines for electively
scheduled deliveries prior to 39 weeks as well as quality
improvement programs. Members can see the designation Elective
Delivery Infant Safety Program in our DocFind® online provider
directory. This designation was added in November 2010 for select
hospitals surveyed last year. Others will be added throughout the
year.
“When you put our designations together with the information on
elective rates released by The Leapfrog Group, this can be very
powerful for members. They have information not only on the rate of
scheduled delivery but also the hospitals that have prevention
programs in place,” says Joanne Armstrong, M.D., senior medical
director and head of Women's Health at Aetna.
Aetna is also doing its own outreach to targeted hospitals,
encouraging them to use the March of Dimes toolkit to establish
programs. Aetna will survey hospitals annually and update the
directory designations accordingly as more hospitals take steps to
reduce early elective deliveries.
Increasing awareness among members
“When women understand that choosing to deliver even a week
early can increase their babies’ risk of health problems, they are
likely to choose to wait,” Dr. Armstrong says. “We’ve added
information about this issue to the Women’s Health section of
www.aetna.com and to www.aetnaIntelihealth.com, and our nurses who
talk to women with higher-risk pregnancies discuss it too. Now we
are beginning to mail letters to members who become pregnant,
giving them information about the benefits of waiting the full 39
weeks.”
The letters also will tell women they can learn which nearby
hospitals have infant safety programs in place to reduce early
scheduled deliveries, by checking Aetna’s online provider
directory.
“With these programs, Aetna is increasing awareness of safety
issues and encouraging higher quality of care for babies,”
Armstrong says.
About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care
benefits companies, serving approximately 35.3 million people with
information and resources to help them make better informed
decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of
traditional and consumer-directed health insurance products and
related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral
health, group life and disability plans, and medical management
capabilities and health care management services for Medicaid
plans. Our customers include employer groups, individuals, college
students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, governmental
units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates.
For more information, see www.aetna.com. To learn more about
Aetna's innovative online tools, visit www.aetnatools.com.
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