Clinical Summary for MaternaLink^® Maternity Management

How the Program Works | Facts You Need to Know | Data Reporting and Management | Maternalink Outcomes

How the Program Works

MaternaLink Maternity Management provides periodic risk assessments for identification of women at risk for preterm birth and other pregnancy-related complications.

Risk assessments are used to stratify patients into high- or low-risk levels, determine an appropriate level of care and develop customized care plans that include educational materials for each patient's specific needs and recommendations for additional outpatient services and programs when appropriate.

Matria's experienced obstetrical nurses offer guidance and support through telephonic interactions conducted from Matria's nationwide call centers and are available to the patient 24/7 to answer questions and concerns.

Risk Assessments

Nurses gather information about a patient's past and current medical history, family history of multiple births and lifestyle behaviors. Initial, midpoint and follow-up assessments are completed either telephonically by a nurse, by the patient via the Internet using a customized interactive Web site or via scan forms.

Initial assessments are used to stratify participants into low- or high-risk categories and establish an appropriate plan of care. Patients identified with extremely high-risk conditions are referred to MaternaLink Case Management for additional education, ongoing one-on-one support and care coordination.

Even if patients are determined not to be at risk for preterm birth, MaternaLink continues to monitor their pregnancies for medical conditions that could develop later on during their pregnancies. By conducting intermittent assessments, Matria's clinicians may help identify possible problems early enough to reduce expensive prenatal costs associated with complications in pregnancy.

The MaternaLink program provides:

• Education, counseling and health promotion information
• Patient education on the abnormal symptoms of pregnancy and information relative to behavior modification
• A 24-hour information line that the patient may utilize if abnormal symptoms appear
• An alert to case managers regarding pregnant patients with abnormal symptoms or risk factors

Other services include:

• BabyLine − a 24-hour toll-free maternity line staffed by experienced perinatal nurses for questions up to six weeks after delivery

• Privately labeled obstetrical Web site, which allows the participant to securely access her assessment reports as well as obtain a wealth of pregnancy educational materials

• Data management and reporting of program activity, outcomes and satisfaction scores

• Obstetrical electronic newsletter customized to their gestational age every two weeks until their delivery

Facts You Need to Know

More than 470,000 infants are born prematurely each year, affecting one out of eight babies born in the United States. Prematurity takes a severe toll on America’s families and strains our healthcare system.  Each year, 100,000 children develop health problems because of their early births. And prematurity is the leading cause of death in the first month.

More than one-third of all pregnant women develop complications costing $1 billion annually for 2 million hospital days. Women comprise 63 percent of the workforce, with 80 percent of them of childbearing age. Nine out of 10 women in the workforce will conceive while employed, with approximately 12 percent of them giving birth prematurely.

Between 1992 and 2002, the number of preterm infants in the United States increased by 13 percent. Given that most premature infants must be hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), which cost an average of $2,000 a day, premature infants can cost as little as $5,000 and as much as $1 million, depending on how early they are born and if they have serious medical problems.

More than $12 billion is spent annually on NICU hospitalizations. Out of all newborn healthcare, 57 percent is spent on preterm births.

Preterm delivery can happen to any pregnant woman; however, in 50 percent of these cases, poor birth outcomes can be predicted by the identification of specific risk factors.  Keys to producing optimal outcomes include:

• Early identification of the risks
• Provision of education related to high-risk pregnancy conditions
• Availability of clinical resources
• Dedicated obstetrical case managers to educate, reinforce, support and coordinate care

Data Reporting and Management

From the inception of our in-home maternity management services in 1984, Matria has established itself as a medical technology leader. Among our commitments, we have gathered the most comprehensive database on high-risk pregnancies in the United States. Matria systems collect, archive, analyze and report clinical outcomes, helping physicians and payers base patient management decisions on measurement and evaluation of patient risk status, clinical intervention and analysis outcome data. We can provide client-specific utilization and outcome reports, as well as clinical and cost-effectiveness validation reports.

Maternalink Outcomes

The number of days infants born to women participating in Matria’s MaternaLink Obstetrical Disease Management Program needed to stay in the NICU in the year 2002 was 37 percent below the national plan average of 1,614 NICU days per 1,000 births.

Additionally, the percentage of very low birth weight infants was 0.7 percent, while the national average was 1.1 percent. Likewise, low birth weight infants comprised 4.6 percent of total MaternaLink births, compared to the national average of 6.1 percent. Similar reductions were observed in years 2001 and 2000, translating into a cost savings of $43 million during the three-year period.