Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation
Presentation Abstract
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Maternity Care Action Plan
Addressing the United States’ maternity care crisis is a key priority for the Biden-Harris Administration. In December 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris convened the first-ever federal Maternal Health Day of Action, where she announced a historic Call to Action to improve maternal health outcomes across the United States. In June 2022, the White House released a Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis, which describes the Administration’s whole-of-government approach to improving maternal health and addressing persistent inequities in maternal health outcomes. As described in the White House blueprint, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has taken a holistic look at its policies and programs to identify opportunities to enhance maternity care delivered to enrollees in Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Health Insurance Marketplace® – specifically, through a focus on driving improvements in access to and quality of care during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. This effort is a central component of CMS’ work to advance health equity. Across income and education level, people of color are far more likely to die from pregnancy related complications. In some cases, Black and American Indian and Alaska Native people are up to five times more likely to die due to pregnancy-related causes than their White peers. This presentation will discuss CMS’ coordinated action plan that spans five key areas of CMS programs and is intended to improve maternity care access, quality, and health outcomes while also reducing disparities.
About Ms. Terry
Tequila Terry serves as the Director of the CMS Innovation Center’s state innovation and population health portfolio where she leads teams responsible for the design, implementation, and management of national health care payment reform and delivery models across Medicare and Medicaid. In this dual role, Ms. Terry partners with states on innovative models designed to transform health care delivery systems, improve health outcomes, and reduce health care costs. She also leads prevention and population health models related to chronic disease prevention, behavioral health, opioid use disorder, and social determinants of health.
Prior to joining CMS, Ms. Terry was with the State of Maryland where she was a Principal Deputy Director and led the Center for Payment Reform & Provider Alignment within the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission. Ms. Terry was part of the State of Maryland's work with the Innovation Center on the unique Total Cost of Care Model where she led the team that designed the State's first multi-payer value-based payment model for physicians and the statewide population health strategy. She was responsible for collaborating with hospitals, physicians, and other stakeholders on care transformation and payment reform, and led legislative affairs, communications, and grant strategies. Additionally, she worked closely with Maryland's Medicaid department on initiatives to align with CMS' primary care models, design new episode-based payment models, and expand access to critical behavioral health, post-acute Long-Term Serves and Supports, and oral health services.
In prior roles, Ms. Terry was the Chief Plan and Partner Management Officer for the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange where she led activities related to state’s implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. She was also Vice President and Executive Director of a national oral health organization and directed the quality improvement division and the organization’s Medicaid programs in seven states. Ms. Terry served as Vice President of Operations for a commercial vision insurance company and held leadership roles with a national health care data clearinghouse, where she worked with large hospital systems, pharmacies, and private practitioners from around the country to help them institute best practices for revenue cycle management and patient payment processes.
Ms. Terry earned a Master of Business Administration from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a Bachelor of Science in sociology from Towson University.
Conflict of interest disclosure is not applicable because Ms. Terry is a federal employee.