Pregnant women on Medicaid seeking early prenatal care in Prince George’s County are often stymied by the system’s slow response, sometimes making it difficult for them to find doctors in the later stages of pregnancy, county health officials told The Examiner.
A study of state health statistics released last week by the Advocates for Children and Youth found that Prince George’s County has the lowest percentage of women in Maryland who are able to get early prenatal care.
“Studies have shown that early prenatal care increases the chances of a healthy baby, and that makes for a healthier adult,” said Matthew Joseph, executive director of Advocates for Children and Youth.
And while there are cultural obstacles to overcome — some women don’t understand the importance of care early in a pregnancy — the larger difficulty is clearing the road for low-income women to get the care they need when they ask for it, said Dr. Donald Shell, Prince George’s County Health Department director.
When a woman on subsidized health insurance discovers she’s pregnant and applies for medical coverage, she may not get approved until she’s already in her second or third trimester, Shell said. Early prenatal care means receiving medical attention in the first trimester.
If a woman hasn’t received care in her first six or seven months of pregnancy, it may be difficult to find a provider, Shell said. The later a pregnancy goes without medical support, the more risky it becomes, and many doctors, fearing lawsuits, won’t accept women in later stages of pregnancy as patients, he added.
A similar problem cropped up last year with delays in the Medicaid approval process that made it difficult for children to get dental care early on. State and county officials have been studying that problem and are developing plans to fix it, Shell said.
Shell added that he had become aware of the early prenatal care issue weeks before last week’s study was made public. On Friday he met with other county health officials to start planning a path forward.
“We’re not just going to study the problem,” Shell said, “we’re going to take the data from the conceptual and put it into action.”
