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Elective Early Deliveries a Thing of the Past

kaiserhealthnews.org
Credit kaiserhealthnews.org

Almost every pregnant woman in Louisiana will now have to wait 39 weeks if they want to choose their baby's birthday and have it covered by insurance. The state's Medicaid program, which insures about 70 percent of all pregnant women in the state, and the state's largest private insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield, both announced in recent months that they will stop covering medically unnecessary early term inducements and cesareans.   

"This was really something where Blue Cross, frankly, could be accused of coming to the table a little late," said Dr. David Carmouche, Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of External Operations at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana. He says the policy change has been a long time coming.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists began discouraging early elective deliveries more than 30 years ago.

"The only point in pregnancy when we can say safely that 99 percent of babies have full lung maturity, full brain development, is 39 weeks and above," explains Dr. Terrie Thomas, an OB/GYN at Associates in Women's Health in Baton Rouge.

In 2007, Woman's Hospital was one of the first in the state to stop performing early elective deliveries, and since then nearly every birthing hospital in the state has stopped as well. But Thomas says the practice persisted in Louisiana to accommodate busy schedules and other circumstances in women's lives.

"Special situations like, 'My husband's being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and I don't want him to miss the birth of our child," Thomas said.

And, Carmouche says that until Blue Cross put a new stricter policy in place last month, a small number of early term elective deliveries were still being scheduled.

"I think this will be the end of that," he said. "I think this will be the last lever that needed to be pulled to rid us of this problem."

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Frank is a native Houstonian. He relocated to Baton Rouge to attend LSU where he earned a communications degree. After working in the film industry for three years as a production assistant, he decided to make the switch to radio and could not be happier with his decision.

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