Hello, everyone. This is Jacob Emerson with the
Becker's Payer Issues podcast. Thrilled today to be
joined by a special guest. Doctor Yolanda Lawson
is the executive medical director for maternal and
infant health at Healthcare Service Corporation.
Doctor Lawson, thanks so much for taking the
time to be with me on the podcast
today.
Thank you for having me here.
So, Yolanda, before we dive into everything we
wanna talk with you about, can you tell
us a little bit more about yourself in
terms of your health care career background
and what it is that you do today
at HCSC?
Certainly. I am an OBGYN
by by specialty.
I've practiced almost 22 years,
in the Texas air in the Dallas, Texas
area.
I even owned a,
birth center at a physician owned birth center,
in the state.
I've been with HCSC now for a little
bit. It just made 1 year,
as the executive medical director for maternal infant
health. And so I do many things, maternal
and infant health, women's health,
really working towards improving,
outcomes for our members in the communities where
they live.
Fantastic.
So, Yolanda, the first thing I wanted to
ask you about is, as you know, HCSC
is the umbrella company for 5 Blue Cross
plans.
So so what would you say are some
of the most significant challenges that you've identified
in improving maternal and infant health across those
5 states that you oversee?
And and how is HCSC addressing those
issues through its different initiatives?
So
from the challenges that I see, I'll just
start there first,
quality.
So quality of care and just making sure
that folks can access quality. So when you
think about,
maternal morbidity or mortality,
those rates are higher when individuals are
delivering at facilities of lower quality
and so access to care. And so I
mean that whether you're talking about cost, whether
you're talking about place, a place where folks
have accessible to them to obtain care. And
one of those real areas that we are
extremely concerned about is around behavioral health care
providers,
insights.
And then lastly, those social drivers. We know
that 70 to 80% of one's health is
attributed
to those their social circumstances
in the environment
and not necessarily their health care. And so
we're addressing that
with our special beginnings maternal infant health initiative.
This initiative began in Texas,
and really it was because Texas ranked last
for access in high quality
prenatal and maternal care. So it started in
Texas last year in 2023.
I'm proud to say we were able to
implement this program in Illinois, New Mexico
in October of 2024.
And so much of that is, again, when
we talk about those social drivers, that could
be transportation.
It could be nutritious foods.
It could be all of these things again
that are drivers,
on these gaps in care that moms and
babies experience.
And Yolanda, tell us a little bit more
about this special beginnings maternal and infant health
initiative. You just mentioned it's it's expanded into
Illinois recently.
What does this expansion mean? And and ultimately,
what does this mean for members on the
ground?
Absolutely. So what this expansion means is
this is more than just expanding programming.
This is around community
investment
and quality.
This is one of the first times
we've invested
into quality
agnostic
of you being a member of Blue Cross
and Blue Shield of Illinois, for instance.
And so we've invested into multiple clinical community
partners,
community based organizations.
We have a partnership with the Illinois Perinatal
Quality Collaborative.
There are fatherhood initiatives, family services,
and social supports.
And this is across a multitude of diverse
communities
throughout the state,
of Illinois. And lastly, I would add
workforce
identifying and, I'm certain many,
listeners may understand that,
when you look at maternal health care deserts
in the US, of course, they exist in
Illinois also. And so workforce, maternal health care
workforce expansion was another
component of this program. So, again, really pulling
together
really a comprehensive,
multifaceted
program
to address all of the needs because no
one person
just has one issue normally
that is attributing,
to the gaps in care they may be
experiencing.
Absolutely. So it sounds like you're really helping
to boost care quality for,
this population beyond just your membership. It's really
amazing to hear. Yolanda, how are how are
you leveraging data right now and and analytics
to identify
disparities
and to track outcomes within the maternal and
infant health space? And can you give us
an example of an of a successful innovation
intervention
that's been informed by some of the data
that you're seeing?
Certainly.
So I personally,
be so I am the immediate past president
of the National Medical Association. So I traveled
the country over the last year
talking about
disparities in health.
And the one thing that I do know
and the one thing I realize,
you need data when you're having conversations
with leaders of organizations
and and and such. And so
for us, we have,
an initiative that was developed internally. And so
when we approach this, I look at this,
the things we can do internally, right, as
an organization.
And then what can we do externally, like
some of the investment in community and such.
And so internally,
we developed a maternal data and risk reporting
project.
And this is using a predictive model
whereby we can identify
pregnancies
sooner and earlier. And if by doing that,
we then can intervene and provide outreach and
provide
resources and connection, right, to things that those
those individuals may need. The second piece of
that, once that predictive tool,
then feeds into
a risk reporting model. And there we can
also,
aggregate the data that we have available to
us to ascertain one's risk, your maternal risk,
if if you if you will. And so
with that, we also, again, can,
set up care coordination
and, again, provide outreach and support
to those members
that may need particular things to address whatever
their needs may be. So really excited about
this. This just launched a few months ago,
but we're using these predictive tools to help
us
help our members.
That's amazing. Really, really cool to hear about
the the preventative and and the risk analysis,
that you're doing for your members, Yolanda.
And as you're,
traveling the country and having these conversations
with with leaders in this space and and
collecting the data that you were talking about,
what are some of the innovative strategies or
technologies
that you've seen,
that from your perspective are game changers
for maternal and infant health, let's say, over
the next 5 years. And then my my
next follow-up question to that would be, how
is Blue Cross preparing to integrate
those insights into its products?
Absolutely. So I really I really like that
question that you asked. And so I will
just start with perhaps the initiative,
that just launched in Illinois and that occurred
in Texas also. So we did,
encompass,
technology,
Right? And digital vendors. These are application tools.
And one of the things that's been so
amazing
around this work is looking at those outcomes
that I'm seeing some of the outcomes come
out from Texas.
And so those those technology companies
were able to use their digital applications
to support members. For instance,
I'm looking at the numbers of folks who
are able to,
obtain transportation and rides to the hospital or
to the doctor
through those,
applications.
They're able to access doula care through those
applications,
behavioral health care services,
nutritionists, especially for those who may have gestational
diabetes, right, the form of diabetes that occurs
in pregnancy,
food delivery, even helping them get their medicines
from the pharmacy. So, again, there's this component
of just this direct
access
to help close those gaps
that folks may experience.
And then secondly,
internal
I'll just expand a little bit more around
the data and risk reporting project. Again, we're
using predictive modeling.
You know, previously,
one could be in their 2nd trimester before
we even recognize you were pregnant. Right? And
so so many things could and a trajectory
could start. And so now with this predictive
modeling were used,
our earliest validation, we're picking up pregnancies almost
a month earlier.
That allows us to provide supports and resources
earlier to hopefully impact,
outcomes.
I think that as we look at this,
AI, I think, you know, every
industry is figuring out ways to use AI.
I hope that we can continue to use
these tools again to connect individuals to services,
and care and resources that they they so
need because we wanna see the end goal
here is an an improvement of outcomes. In
Texas, we've probably,
seen over 70,000
folks in our cohort,
providing all kinds of services,
health screens,
immunizations,
lab testing,
prenatal care,
referrals to mental health care providers,
all of these things that we know are
so important. And then lastly, I would mention
closing those gaps around postpartum care. We know
that about 40% of individuals
don't get a postpartum care visit.
But
half of deaths,
maternal deaths, occur in the postpartum period. So
looking at ways that we're also we're very
strategic and intentional
about addressing that aspect.
Absolutely. Well, clearly, so much important and impactful
work going on across the enterprise under your
leadership, Yolanda.
But before we go, what else are we
missing? Any other final thoughts or final bits
of advice you wanna offer all the other
health care leaders listening in?
So I would just,
as I think
maternal health, we've all seen the headlines.
I think recently,
I was just reading that in Northwestern in
Illinois, there was an increase in severe
maternal morbidity over these last 6 years. And
so I think that
I just ask everyone start somewhere,
right?
Knowing that for me, this is fundamental to
women's health broadly.
And so start somewhere. I think this is
something that everyone
has a responsibility
to, whether you realize that or not. But
everyone does has a responsibility
in making moms and all babies safe,
in in our country. So I'm so happy
that you had me here today to just
share a little bit about what we are
doing, but, also, hopefully,
this,
inspires others, right, to connect to the work
in their communities. There are so many ways
to do that. So many organizations that are
doing this work. Just as we connected with
community, I'm asking others to do the same.
Well, it's a great parting message. So, doctor
Lawson, thank you so much for taking the
time to sit down with me and for
sharing your insights with our listeners. We truly
appreciate it.
Excellent. Thank you.
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